The Journals of the Battlestar Telmaya
by Sage1988
Summary: Set aboard the Academy Training Battlestar Aristotele and its crew and their metamorphosis into the most powerful Battlestar in history. Can they survive the journey?
1. Chapter 1

This is my fanfic, set around the fictional Battlestar Telmaya, well it isn't called that yet, but soon.

I will be changing the timeline, to an extent. New Caprica isn't settled. But other than that I will try to be as faithful as possible within my story anyway. I am going to be taking a lot of license.

Kendra Shaw from 'Razor' is now an 18 year old cadet on the new ship and Sheba Cain from the old series and Serina also from the old series are here to.

For the events of 'Razor' just imagine that someone did what Shaw did.

**Chapter 1- Day of Reckoning**

A black sea of space with its islands of stars and planets. That was the ocean through which the Battlestar _Aristotele_ travelled. In looks she was near identical to her sister the Battlestar _Pegasus_, the _Mercury_ class Battlestar under Rear Admiral Cain.

But unlike her powerful sister she wasn't a warship.

She was training ship.

In the beginning she was meant to be a full Battlestar like the others but with cut backs in the fleet's budget she was stripped of most of her great weapons before even being launched.

At the same time at the Colonial Military Academy, their old Stampede class cruiser which they used to teach the cadets about life onboard a military vessel, gave up the ghost and succumbed to old age.

So the big wigs at fleet command had a brain storm, why not use the partially complete Battlestar, who hadn't even been named yet as the new Academy training ship. Completed her fitting of essential systems, life support, propulsion, sensors and limited defensive turrets. Equipped with old Star Viper class 3's to give their pilots some viper training as well as a few old raptors. And she was ready for use at the school. She was given the name _Aristotele_ after the famous philosopher.

Taking a crew of 3000 cadets with 7 instructors acting as officers from the academy, the ship's commander was Commodore Reggie Willis, the principle of the academy and an old veteran of the past wars.

Occasional training cruises around safe and empty areas of space, proved boring but useful and more realistic to the cadets than an old bucket that was more breaking down than anything else, breeding generations of engineers as the cadets spent most of their time keeping the ship running or fixing it when it broke down frequently.

It was on one of these training runs that the Training Star _Aristotele_ received its first mission, before it and its crew were changed forever, and before their metamorphosis began.

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"So let me get this straight. We've been sent on a cargo run" said eighteen year old Kendra Shaw, one of a circle of friends that pretty much ruled the school in terms of ability and skill at what ever they did.

She and her friends from the academy sat around a table in the crowded mess, trying to enjoy their down time. There were four of them, three girls, and one boy. There was usually another guy named Suspa Huin, who was training to be a marine, but he had returned to Tauron on leave to see his family.

"Pretty much, yeah. First we go to the depot on Tallos and pick up equipment and materials and transport them to the Scorpion Shipyards for the Pegasus refit" replied her best friend and boyfriend Seth Trakiss. He was the best student at the academy and the leader of the little gang. He was tall at the age of 19 at 5ft 11 with a black crew cut and muscled body, but not garishly so.

"I can't see why they just don't use regular cargo ships for this. Why pick us?" came from Serina, a trainee Viper pilot that hailed from Caprica. Her long brown hair that had blond highlights and soft face, did not hint at her hard as nails nature, but she still had a compassionate side to her that she shared with those who needed it.

"Because my dear Serina, with that new colony that's being set up on the moon Tiberus, most of the regular cargo ships are being sent there to give them equipment and supplies while they are setting up. That means less ships available for the colonies needs and even less for the military" Seth answered, sighing at her comment. While Serina could fly rings around anyone at the academy, even the instructors, she didn't keep up with current events.

"Well at least it's actually a mission" Said Sheba Cain, the daughter of Rear Admiral Cain who against all expectations had become an engineer/pilot rather than a command officer like her mother.

"Yes, I suppose, but I still resent us being treated like a freighter for the record" Kendra responded huffing and crossing her arms.

"Oh Kendra you'll never change will you?" Seth said pulling her into his lap. Their friends rolled their eyes at the two's antics. These two often missed classes at the academy so they could go off and snog in some cupboard even more sometimes, making up for the missed lessons in their own time.

"You bet I won't. And you love it right" Kendra whispered huskily as she ran her hand along his face and broke her frown with a sultry grin. Lowering her lips onto his, they began their regular games of tonsil hockey in front of everyone in the mess. But since they were seen doing it so often no-one batted an eye lid.

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The _Aristotele_ moved through region of space known as the Roswelt zone, named after Andy Roswelt, who charted it and found that it was a region of space that contained absolutely nothing. But this area was the quickest route between Tallos and Caprica, so that was the route they took.

In CIC, the Grey-haired Commodore Reggie Willis stood in a calm way while the officers and crew went about their tasks. The positions of executive officer, flight leader (head of the Viper squadrons onboard), chief engineer, CAG, Flight Control co-coordinator (the person who handled ships in the hanger) and chief medical officer were held by his instructors from the academy while the rest of the tasks onboard ship were handled by the cadets under the officers supervision. His thoughts wandered to his third officer, a cadet at the honorary rank of colonel named Seth Trakiss. He'd had some reservations about putting him in a position of authority.

_Flashback…Commodore's Office_

_Commodore Willis sat at his desk going through the various reports from both the ship and school. He wanted to put a command track cadet in a position were he could in a sense liaise between the cadets and officers and take some of the slack off of the officers. There was a candidate for the job, but he was unsure as to whether he was a good risk._

_The door bell sounded and Reggie looked up_

"_Come in" he responded_

_The door opened and a tall young cadet with short black hair at almost 6ft tall came in and stood in front of the desk. He saluted _

"_You asked to see me, Commodore" Seth Trakiss said in an even voice, his face a mask of no emotion._

"_Yes cadet. You've probably heard that I'm taking Aristotele on a training cruise and I'm bringing you on board" Willis said to the cadet standing in front of his desk._

"_Yes sir, I'll be on board as soon as possible sir. Was there anything else?"_

"_Yes, I was just going through your file and quite frankly I find you interesting, cadet. Top marks in virtually all your classes, well liked amongst the trainees and competent in field training situations. But also several marks for discipline problems, missed classes, arguments with tutors in field exercises. Very opposite ends of the spectrum. So cadet, what are you here for?"_

"_Sir?" Seth asked_

"_Why did you come to the academy cadet? What your goals and aims?" Willis clarified_

"_I want to command my own Battlestar one day sir. That's my dream. After that settle down raise a family. Those are my goals sir"_

"_Well clear goals, I'll give you that. Do any of you family serve in the military?"_

"_No sir. My family run a farm on Aries, they wanted me to stay and run the farm but I had other plans" _

"_Do you still speak to them?" _

"_No sir, they washed their hands of me after I left sir. My brothers stayed to manage the farm, their real sons." Seth said with some sarcasm _

"_But how do you expect to get a Battlestar if you argue with your superiors?" Willis asked getting back on track_

"_Sir, if you give me an order, I will follow it. The only times that I would object is if I saw a flaw in the order or knew a better way." _

"_Be that as it may, if I gave you an order would you follow it?"_

"_Yes Sir"_

"_That's good because I want a cadet as third officer on Aristotele and you're the best candidate. So do want the job?" _

"_Yes sir"_

_Willis took a box of rank badges out of his draw and gave it to him "Congratulations Colonel, I want you in full officer uniform and on Aristotele within two hours. Do you have any other ideas about who else to take as well?"_

"_Yes sir and I assure you these choices were made impartially sir; Cadets Kendra Shaw, Sheba Cain, and Serina sir... their all top scoring cadets sir and some considerable talent in their areas" _

"_I hope so. As a commander you can't show favouritism. Dismissed"_

_Seth saluted and walked out of the room, the Commodore wondered if he had made the right choice._

_End Flashback_

Well the temporally promoted cadet had proved very up to the task at hand, assisting the XO, co-ordinate the crew and made running the ship much easier.

They had picked up the cargo from Tallos and everything was going like clock work, no hiccups.

Then the proximity sensors sounded their warning cry as multiple signatures jumped in. Small contacts, loads of them, dozens.

The shape is not familiar but the ones who had studied the Cylon War of 41 years ago could see similarities between the craft of then and the craft out there now.

Cylon Raiders

Before the crew could react the raiders began to swarm over _Aristotele_ and fire their weapons. The ship shook violently at the impacts.

Conduits exploded

People were thrown from their stations

Fires spread

Areas of the hull ripped open exposing small areas to space, sucking people into the airless void.

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The alarms still sounded and the ship still shook as the enemy hammered away at the stricken ship. In CIC people struggled to operate their stations as systems became increasingly unresponsive. The XO lay on the deck, half of his face blown off by the central console's explosion, the Commodore propped up against the wall unconscious as glass stuck in burnt body. He to had been injured by the exploding consoles.

But there was some order on the bridge.

Seth Trakiss, stood at the FTL station barking orders to the remaining crew, keeping them organized and still fighting while he struggled to get the 'Faster Than Light' Drives working.

Then a distant Cylon Bomber launched two nuclear missiles at _Aristotele_, the deadly streaming projectiles

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Please Review!!!!


	2. Chapter 2

Another chapter and thanks for anyone who review. I love to here from my readers.

Another note about the plot of the story. Starbuck didn't vanish and she stayed with Galactica.

**Chapter 2 – The Metamorphosis begins Part 1**

_Then a distant Cylon Bomber launched two nuclear missiles at Aristotele, the deadly streaming projectiles…_

_And now the conclusion_

Closing in on their target, the lumber giant as its crew watched helpless as their impending doom came closer.

Then a spark in the circuits ignited the FTL drives and the ship promptly vanished

Leaving the two missiles to hit two nearby Cylon Raiders and explode, taking most of the ships around it with them.

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_3 Days after the attack…_

The now battle scarred Training Star _Aristotele_ was stationary in the broken moon of a gas giant somewhere out side of the core systems. Hiding amongst the rubble, using it to disguise them. The crew not daring to leave encase the Cylons were still looking for them, until they had completed the repairs to the ship. The Communication System had been hit hard by the enemy's initial strike, wrecked and needed to be replaced. They were slowly working on it but it would take a couple of days.

The attack had cost 176 cadets and 6 officers their lives. The Commodore himself was lying in the sickbay under the medical track cadet's care. His old body fighting a losing battle against his wounds.

Seth Trakiss was in CIC directing the repair efforts. Getting his hands dirty by working on the consoles setting a good example to the rest and they worked tirelessly to get the ship going again.

Kendra Shaw herself was rebooting the navigational systems and defensive computers. Replacing circuit boards and rewriting computer code to allow them to be brought back on line.

Sheba Cain was in main engineering trying to figure out how to rebuild the FTL's which had shorted out after their jump. As well as trying to fix pretty much every system on the ship, bar life support which thankfully hadn't been too badly damaged in the sudden battle. On top of that they were having to patch up the outer hull as in some areas it looked like Swiss cheese.

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Seth was replacing the circuits inside the centre console before placing the cover with a new one from storage while giving orders to the other cadets about how to proceed with the repairs. He hoped as soon as they were up and running that they could make a run for the nearest colony. Hopefully they wouldn't run into the Cylons again.

Kendra was picking up a pile of circuit boards from the floor. He was so happy, unbelievably happy that she was still here. She had been in her quarters during the battle and away from her usual station which had exploded and killed the cadet standing in for her.

If the attack had come an hour later, she would be the one in the body bag.

He completed his task and went up to her, as she finished installing the new boards and replacing the screen. He tapped her on the shoulder and she sighed, turning around. She brightened a bit when she realised it was him, rather than another cadet asking her what needed doing.

"You alright Goddess?" He asked with concern as he took her hands in his, referring to her by his nickname for her, Kendra meant in at least one meaning a beautiful women that was almost goddess like.

"Yes, just a bit tired" She answered, leaning into him as he wrapped his arms around her. When they'd first met she'd been so embarrassed by such a show of affection in public or event in private. But when he finally convinced her to go out with him, she had come to know that there was nothing to be embarrassed about.

"Best go get some rest. I'm going to give the crew a few hours of sleep and a bit to get a bite to eat. I'll stay up with a few volunteers to keep an eye on things" he whispered in her ear, cradled her close.

"You know if I wasn't so tired I'd argue. But you need rest too" she said

"I know, but I'll sleep better when I know that we've got the FTL's online so we can run, if were found" He said gently swaying her in a soothing motion

"Colonel Sir, sickbay is asking for you sir" interrupted a first year cadet from navigation from over his shoulder

Seth almost growled, but bit his tongue and turned to face the 15 year old anxious "Tell them I'll be there in a couple minutes" He turned back to Kendra "I'll see you tomorrow, get some sleep" He said, gently kissing her slowly on the mouth, before letting her go slowly and setting off into the corridors of the ship.

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Sickbay was the grimmest place on the ship right now. Cadets with limited medical training doing whatever they could to delay the inevitable in most cases, while trying to patch up those not as badly injured so they could make space for those that were in worse condition.

The Commodore was lying on a bed at the far side of the bay, with so many machines attached to him that it looked like he was growing wings of wires.

The old man, tiredly opened one eye and it visibly caused him pain but he kept the eye open. He croakily said

"Why so solemn boy, you'd think, it was you who was dying" And Seth quickly banished any solemn expression from his face and asserting the military discipline he'd learned into play

"Yes Sir" Seth responded

The old man relaxed a bit but kept on going "Status report"

Which Seth gave him "FTL's are offline, so are weapons and launch systems sir. We have only limited passive sensors, external communications are wrecked and sublight engines are at 30% power. We've hid in a broken moon outside of the core systems sir while we repair the ship to use the Mergetline deposits to prevent the Cylons from finding us. We should have most those systems on-line within a couple of days and the external comm systems in about five"

"Any sight of Cylons?" Willis asked

"Two days ago we saw a small recon craft past the outer system on the passive visual sensors, it might have been Cylon but we can't be sure"

"Did they detect us?"

"No Sir, the moon fragments and the Mergetline deposits prevented us from being detected"

"Good, my people will not find us here" Willis said

"What do you mean your people?" Seth asked with a cold chill running down his spine

"Why the Cylons, cadet. Use that brain of yours" Said the thing that everyone believed had been his commanding officer

"But I thought the Cylons were machines"

"Most of us are, but we now are organic beings as well"

"Where is the real Commodore Reggie Willis?" Seth said some anger coming through his voice now

"The real Commodore was replaced three years ago. When we began planning this attack we needed to make sure that all the Colonial elements were in the right place, so I made sure we were where we should be so we could be destroyed. Most of the fleet has new software that we could hack into and sabotage, but this ship doesn't have that software so we put her where we could get her"

"Why are telling me this?"

"Because I like you cadet. You got the ship out of danger and you're keeping it together. I wonder if all the commanders were as good."

"What do you mean 'all the commanders'?" Asked Seth fear creeping through him

"All the commanders and leaders throughout the Colonial fleet of course, you didn't think you were the only ones attacked do you?"

Seth gripped the front of the Cylon's hospital gown "What have done?" he snarled

"A huge co-ordinated attack on all planets and ships with the Colonial forces. By now it will have been completed and you'll be near extinction" Willis gave a bemused smile

Shock was the first thing to come to Seth. It couldn't be true. Not all the ships and planets. There were 120 Battlestars in fleet; they couldn't all be gone. But then rage overcame him and he placed and tightened his hand around the Cylon's throat

"You bastard"

"To bad cadet you don't get your revenge today" The Cylon must have had a suicide implant, because his heart just stopped and his brain shorted out

And in Seth's grip

The Cylon died

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Explaining to the crew, that the man who they had thought to be their Commodore was in reality a Cylon in human form was difficult to say the least. Worse yet was trying to explain that everything they'd ever known might be gone.

The senior cadets were worried that order would break down when news got out, but thankfully the crew chose to keep their cool and repair the ship, hoping against hope that the Cylon was lying.

5 days later they found out that they were true

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_Mining Ship Shovel…8 days after the attack_

The head foreman aboard the mining ship had been overseeing the _Shovel_ when it had been extracting Tylium from asteroids on the outer edges of the core systems when the Cylons came. Under attack he and his rust bucket had used their FTL drive to escape. The miners horrified at the scenes they seen.

Caprica, Aries, Tauron, and all the other colonies nuked.

The fleet burning

Any civilian ships that could running away

As images of holocaust flooded through his mind, he broke down and cried. His wife had been on Tauron with his sons. His daughter was on board their ship as the mineralogist, but they didn't talk.

She'd wanted to go to the military academy and become a Viper Pilot but he'd stopped her and forced her into College to study mineralogy to follow him in the family business of mining. Now they were further apart than ever as she grieved alone, rejecting any attempt he made to make peace.

His crew were much like him, most had loss their whole families. And although they had heard echoes of communication traffic from other ships so at least they knew weren't alone. But they guessed what comes next.

The Cylons would hunt them down, wipe them out.

If only some military had survived then maybe they would have a chance, someone to protect them. They were only unarmed civilian ships, no match for the Cylon war machine.

As the ship slid into the dense debris field, Hal Forrest (for that was his name) called his daughter Alison to the bridge, he wanted her to look for useful minerals or ore in the debris.

Then their limited senses picked up something. A large object that was located in an area of Mergetline. The element prevented the sensors from scanning the object but from what limited information they could get it seemed to be metallic in nature. Fearing a Cylon Basestar from the size he turned on the visual sensors and took a look at it.

Wonder and joy and hope filled him and everyone on the bridge who could see the screen.

There was a god, he'd answered their prayers.

It wasn't a Cylon Basestar

But a Colonial Battlestar.

It may have looked like a cold piece of metal, but to them it looked like an angel.

They were saved.

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_Meanwhile on __Aristotele_

"Can someone explain to me why, I wasn't told that a strange ship appeared in system, came up close and is now heading towards until just a few seconds ago?" Seth asked in a strained voice. Thankfully the crew seemed to have elected him leader and gave him the rank of commander so he could keep things going.

"Well Sir, we hoped they'd just go away sir" replied the same nervous first year cadet that had interrupted him and Kendra a few days ago.

"Well don't do it again. If a ship suddenly appears, I need to know. Okay?" he asked trying to maintain a semblance of calm. Handling the responsibilities of being in charge was weighing on his shoulders heavily. If it wasn't for Kendra he would have sagged under the pressure. But as time passed he grew more able to handle it.

Thankfully their newly repaired sensors told them it wasn't Cylon but Colonial which was a relief in more ways than one. Not only were they not in danger of being attacked but they could finally find out what had happen to the colonies. But if the Cylon was right...Seth shuddered at the thought. Maybe it was best not to know.

"Their hailing sir" reported the 17 year old cadet at the comms station

"Scan the vessel and identify" Seth ordered

Kendra worked her magic at the science station to find out what they knew about the ship. She then reported what they computer found

"It's an old _Scavenger class_ called the _Shovel_. Commissioned 20 years ago on Tauron, it is owned by a man named Hal Forrest, the chairman of the Colonial Mining Corporation. Crew about 300, no weapons to speak of. Sensors confirm computer ID and register a crew of 249. Sir, their hailing again, should I put them on speakers?"

"Yes, put up them on" Seth replied

The comm system crackled as there was some limited interference from the debris

"_Thank God! We thought you military lot had had it! Sorry this is Hal Forrest of the Shovel. We so glad to others are still alive!"_

"Well Mr Forrest, good to see you too. This is acting Commander Seth Trakiss of the Colonial Battlestar_ Aristotele_. We should meet face to face. I'll send a Raptor for you if you want?" Seth said into the speaker

"_That'll be great! Me and my daughter will come over right away. With you around me and my crew feel a lot safer, sir"_ and with that the system closed down as the communication ended.

A dead weight settled in Seth's stomach. The way those people sounded and what they'd said confirmed their worse fears. And they looked towards _Aristotele_ for protection. Well they were going to be sorely disappointed.

_To be continued… _

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Please Review

Kendra has a few different meanings, in Poland it means a long-haired woman, it is also an Anglo-Saxon is means understanding or knowledge, meaning beautiful woman that is goddess-like or in Hindi it saids middle or center.

Commodore is a rank between Commander and Rear Admiral, unique to the academy principle


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3 – Let the work begin**

Kendra Shaw looked out of her window in her quarters. The rocks and dust that swirled around the hulking giant obscuring the stars.

She was on an island, an island of metal in a sea of rock and dust. All the crew was depressed, the knowledge of what happened to their homes and loved ones weighed down on them heavily.

There was an irony that made her give a bitter chuckle. Of all the Battlestars in the fleet, the runt of the litter had to survive. The weak training ship made it, when the big and mighty Battlestars had been blown to pieces.

She thought back to the day when she had boarded it…

_Space above the Dwarf Planet Respir (Colonial Academy) 1 week before attack_

_The raptor shuttle glided gracefully through space above the small planet towards the orbiting ship, Aristotle._

_Aristotle was a bit bigger than Pegasus, but stripped of her weapons with the exception of a few of her defensive batteries, she was little more than a transport. _

_But from a distance you wouldn't see that, she looked like all the others._

_When she got close a strange feeling came over Kendra and those who boarded the big ship this time, for the cadets anyway. _

_It was like coming home. Even those cadets who had boarded her before had it when they hadn't had it before, but they couldn't explain it. _

_End Flashback_

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_Aristotle meeting room now…_

Seth checked his uniform and tugged his tunic out of nervousness. He wanted to at least look the part of being a commander even if the truth was he was only pretending. The civilian captain sounded like he needed reassurance.

The hopelessness of the situation had almost reduced him to a nervous wreck, but he held on to his reserve. The crew needed him to be strong and have a plan.

And he did have a plan.

It was very risky plan, but one that gave them their only chance at not only survival, but having any kind of future at all.

Around him his friends stood, in uniform themselves. They were his officers for the moment.

The door slid open and a burly looking man accompanied by a lean young girl about Serina's age.

The man's hopeful expression was slightly reduced when he saw them. Seth knew why, he'd been expecting a battle hardened old geezer and a full crew of marines and veteran pilots. Not a bunch of wet behind the ears cadets with a Battlestar that lacked nearly everything.

Seth made the first move. He walked slowly towards the burly man who was about his height and stuck out a hand.

"Welcome aboard Mr Forrest. I'm Commander Trakiss, we're glad to meet you. Please take a seat" he said gesturing to the table and chairs with his free hand while shaking Hal's hand with the other.

Hal and Alison sat at their chosen chairs while the rest of the people took their seats with Seth at the head of the table.

They all introduced themselves and went to business.

"Well Mr Forrest. We're all anxious to hear any news. Do you know of any other survivors?" Seth asked his arms arching on the table with fingers interlaced, leaning in.

"Not positively, but we know that others did make it. We saw ships jumping out as we left and since we've heard echoes of communication traffic, but other than that we don't know" Hal said, taken aback at the abruptness

"Sorry Mr Forrest" Seth said quickly, noticing the way he had talked to him "I guess were all a bit mixed up, we're glad to have you here."

The meeting was quite ordered after that. Blow by blow the attack on the colonies was explained. A long silence came over the room after the tale ended. The severity of the situation weighing them

Seth leaned forward, his head resting on his hands as they were arched on the table.

"Mr Forrest do you have any of those specially modified Raptors with mechanical arms?"

Hal Forrest was clearly puzzled by the question but answered anyway "Yes seven mark 4 Raptors with mechanical arms for breaking off rock chucks from asteroids. Why?"

"We'll need something to help fix equipment to the hull" Seth answered

Everyone else blinked in surprise and Seth continued

"This is what we're going do too…"

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Around the ship an hour later the crew gathered awaiting the commander's message. The knowledge of what had happened to the Homeworlds depressed them. But the hope that Seth had a plan gave them hope.

With the crew assembled Seth picked up the speaker in CIC and called a ship wide

"My comrades, I'm sure that you've heard the rumours about the Cylon attack on our colonies. The truth is that the colonies are gone, the fleet is destroyed. So you must all be asking yourselves the same question I' am. What do we do now?

We could hide

We could run

We could attack our enemies in some hopeless and suicidal quest for revenge

But the Shovel has given me hope

The knowledge that there are other survivors of this holocaust

So what I plan to do is to gather them and get them to safety. And we use this ship to protect them. We use the cargo from Tallos to make this ship a real Battlestar and if we run into the Cylons then we make them pay for every life they've taken"

A cheer went up through the ship and a smile formed on the face of Seth and his friends

"I'll be reviewing you files to put you into positions which suit you best. My friends I promise you we will make it"

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Seth had spent the last week and a half going through the files of the crew and putting them in the best positions for what served the ship. Kendra was now a colonel and his XO, Sheba a major and chief engineer, Serina a Captain and the head of the Viper Squadrons and so on. The ship's new doctor was a redheaded 18 year old medic named Tally Forego from Gemenon.

The refit was going faster than expected. Using the Special Raptors and engineers help from _Shovel_ to place weapons and additional armour on the outer hull. They now had all weapons of a normal _Mercury Class Battlestar_ and some others were being added as with new upgrades that were being added to the fleet at the time.

New Construction facilities and upgrades to the ships were being installed, with the exception of the dangerous software made by Gaius Baltar. They now had a proper Dradis package and fire control systems.

But that wasn't the only things being done; flight simulators were being installed to help the pilots practice. And the pilots had new toys as well.

Prior to the attack a new model Viper had been commissioned by the military. The cargo from Tallos included the disassembled parts for 170 new Mark VIII's. After breaking them out of storage, assembling them and modifying them so that they were immune to Cylon hacking or viruses. Now they had 5 full squadrons of cadets with Mark VIII Vipers who were going through intense training to get them ready to face the enemy. The old Mark III Vipers were being broke down for parts and smelted into new Mark VIII's.

All in all things were going well.

Now there was only one member of the senior staff left to be selected, the head of the marines. There was a couple of candidates for the positions and some had already been interviewed, but they all lacked the qualities needed in both a leader and in a soldier. Hopefully the last candidate would be the right one for the job

The door sounded and Seth said looking up "Enter"

A tall dark skinned young man walked in who looked a few years older than he was but with a stern look in his eye. His name was Tyber Jones from Aquarius and a top scoring marine cadet.

Tyber saluted and spoke in a low even voice "You sent for me, Commander"

Seth pulled out Tyber's file and looked him in the eye

"Well Jones let's get down to business. You're a top scoring cadet in the marine sector and considerable skill in leadership of soldiers in field exercises and well liked by your men. Now I need someone capable in charge of the marines onboard this ship. What do you say?"

Tyber looked a shocked at first but quickly regained his composure. He replied "If you order me to take charge of the marine core sir, I'll do it"

Seth frowned for a minute "I don't want you to do it, because I order you to do it. I want you to want to do it. I need the best people in the best positions and for the marine core that's you. Now do you want the job?"

Tyber's gaze was steady "Yes"

Seth studied him for a minute and asked "You don't like me do you?"

Tyber answered "No sir"

"Why?" Seth asked

"Because sir, I feel that you don't have the discipline to lead this crew" Tyber answered

"Well in that case, we need to come to an arrangement. I'll do my best to lead this crew and if I overstep the line you stop me. Agreed?" Seth offered

Tyber thought for a few seconds and nodded

Seth pulled out a set of rank badges "In that case Sergeant Major you're out of uniform" and handed him the badges and Tyber took the box and exited the room

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Two weeks after the refit began it was finished. Seth was to say proud of them would be an understatement.

And under their own power the two ships left their hiding place and journeyed back towards the core systems.

As if a sign of providence the name _Aristotle_ had been burned off during the Cylon attack on that fateful day. Deciding that the name was no longer appropriate the crew had renamed her _Telmaya_. In honour of the captain of the first ever Battlestar which had fought a suicidal battle against the Cylons to buy the colonies time to bring other Battlestars online.

Their mission had begun…

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Comm echo = Basically it's the echo of communications like echoes in a cave when you shout. They are in the communication bands rather than actual space and can travel only a short distance. And often due to interference they aren't heard

It's just for convience. It's a way to let the characters know that there are others out there

Sorry about that Please Review


	4. Chapter 4

_No Cylons in this chapter sorry. They'll meet the Cylons soon enough_

_Mentions of rape nothing graphic_

_Sheba's origins explained _

**Chapter 4 – Memories of the Daughter **

The two ships _Telmaya _and _Shovel_ travelled at sublight speed through an asteroid belt looking for the source of a transmission they'd picked up. It had been on the colonial waves so they hoped to find them before the Cylons did.

It had been three days since they'd left the broken planet and so far nothing. But all things concerned the crew was adapting to life onboard ship well. They had a surplus of parts and supplies to last three months. The crews of both ships decided to share what they had.

As they entered the densest part of the belt and began looking for contacts with DRADIS. The problem was that with all the floating rocks there were too many readings. That's what made it such a good hiding place.

So they were using their comm. System tied in with their DRADIS, this way if there was another transmission DRADIS could lock onto it and guide them to the location.

Small short distance messages were being intercepted so they were slowly ranging their target. These must be civilians because they were transmitting in the clear without scrambling or coding.

Eventually they came to a space in the field where they found what they were looking for, six civilian ships; 5 cargo ships and 1 Botanical ship.

They were contacting them over the wireless and still in the clear so Seth sent a signal of his own

"To all civilian ships this is the Battlestar _Telmaya_, please stop transmitting before the Cylons use those signals to find us. I'll send a Raptor to each of your ships to bring you hear so that we can talk. _Telmaya_ out"

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Twenty minutes later in the war room on _Telmaya_ the seven captains of the gathered ships met. Seth gestured for them all to take a seat around the table with himself at its head and Kendra at the opposite end.

"Well ladies and gentleman, I'm glad we found you, but please stop transmitting in clear or you'll have the Cylons on us in a flash, literally" Seth said seriously. "Right now we need to combine forces and stay together, so if you're willing you can come with us while we look for other survivors"

"Why can't we just stay here or run now?" asked the Geminon captain of the _Baltic_.

"Because if we stay here the Cylons are sure to find us and we are still hearing communication echoes from other ships so we know that others are out there" Hal Forrest answered, he and Seth had both discussed this situation well prior to the actual meeting.

"Why don't we just run now?" demanded the red faced captain of the _Ortis_

"Because we'd be leaving those people to die…I know were risking contact with the Cylons but if we're going to survive as a species then we need to find all the people we can and get out of here. If we leave then we leave all those men, women…children behind to die" Seth said, his voice firm

The captains of the ships nodded their agreement, albeit the captain of _Ortis_ reluctantly and the captain of the Botanical Ship _Eden_ brought something that was rather important

"Commander, my ship doesn't have an FTL Drive"

Seth's eyes narrowed, this was a big problem. If they were cornered by the Cylons the FTL's were the only chance of escape and they'd need them when they left system.

"I'll send my chief engineer over to see if we can adapt your ship with an FTL drive, until then captains I need you to start pulling lists of your ship's cargo, compliment, status, the works." He got up, signalling the meeting was over. He had to go see Sheba

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Sheba Cain was in the starboard hanger fixing up the launch systems for the new Mark 8 Vipers, they needed a small anti-gravitational self-sufficient field with its own power source to help the Vipers move along the launch tubes on a separate system so that even with main and auxiliary power off-line then the systems would still be operational. She also had to adapt the ship systems to operate independently without networking and purge all traces of Baltar's dangerous program from the systems of both _Telmaya_ and _Shoval._

Then she got an inter ship call from CIC and went to the phone to her right, she picked up the receiver and her commander spoke to her

"Sheba, I need you to get together an engineering assessment team and head over to _Eden_ and see if a FTL can be fitted to her and fast if the Cylons detected those transmissions we won't have long before a ship is sent to find us" Seth's voice said in a serious tone. Since the attack he had taken a much more serious attitude; settling into his new role seemly very quickly.

"I'll be there soon sir" she said putting back the receiver and left one of her new deputies to handle the job she'd been doing while going to gather her surveyor team from the workshops.

Today was her birthday not that anyone remembered, the situation meant things like celebrating birthdays weren't important

These days her thoughts led back to her mother Admiral Helena Cain. Her mother and she had never had a good relationship, she'd never wanted Sheba

_Flashback… Tauron about 19 years ago_

_Helena Cain stumbled out of the bar with her arm around a man who was she'd just met. She'd just made Commander and all she wanted to do was celebrate. She was so drunk that she didn't realise that the man she was holding her had more in mind than getting her home._

_About have way back to her flat she fell asleep and he put her on the floor, pulled off her trousers and he quickly had his own lowered and once he'd got his release he pulled them back on and left Helena lying in the alley way dozing, to awake to find she'd been raped_

_End Flashback_

When Helena had woken up and realised what had happened; that she had quickly got to her flat and cleaned up, not wanting to acknowledge what had happened. But two months later she found out after ignoring the possibility for that long that she couldn'r deny it any longer.

That she was pregnant.

With abortion illegal on Tauron and not wanting to bring shame on her career she'd had to take maternity leave and have the baby, Sheba and then the moment she was able Helena had left Sheba in a children's home on Tauron so she could go back into service. Once a couple years she'd come back to see her and those time were not happy, Sheba had never been under any illusions about the shallowness of her mum's caring and let her know it.

The last time she'd seen her mother had been on the day before she left for the academy and then they'd really been shouting at each other that day

_Flashback_

_Sheba in the middle of packing her bag while ignoring her mother's ranting_

"_By the Gods Sheba if you're going into the service then at least go for command track then you'll at least have some prospects for advancement, once you reach chief engineer that's about as far as you go in that, and in Viper track then you get CAG but no further than that!"_

"_Because it's what I'm good at Helena" Sheba shot back, to her face she'd never called Helena Cain her mother because she had never really been a mum in her mind_

"_GODS DAMN IT SHEBA! WHY WON'T YOU LISTEN TO ME!? I ONLY WANT WHAT BEST FOR YOU!" Helena roared back, never a patient person it only took a bit to set her off_

"_NO! YOU WANT WHAT'S BEST FOR YOU! FOR YOUR DAUGHTER TO FOLLOW IN YOUR FOOTSTEPS! WELL I WON'T BE DOING THAT I ASSURE YOU! NOW I'M LEAVING AND DON'T EVER CONTACT ME AGAIN!" she shouted at Helena, grabbed her bag and stormed out of her room at the child home where she'd spent most of her life, leaving a shaking in rage Helena Cain behind. Enraged at her daughter's attack._

_End Flashback_

That had been the last time she'd seen or heard from her mother, and she was grateful in some way. If they'd had a talk, they'd have ending up arguing. But the little girl in her wanted to talk and make things right with her mummy, to try to earn her love.

But the jaded adult in her took those thoughts and crushed them. Her mother was a career minded bitch that only cared for herself. If she'd hadn't found it in her heart to put her career on hold for a few years so she could take care of her daughter then what kind of a person was she? With a maternity allowance from the Fleet and child benefit and her inheritance for her parents that she had barely touched, Helena could have lived quite comfortably for at least till Sheba was twenty five. But she was too focused on her career.

----------------------------------------------------

After gathering her team she took a Raptor over to the flying garden ship and docked. The team studied the structural integrity of the ship and the viability of installing an FTL.

She was back on _Telmaya_ a few hours later and reporting to her CEO in CIC while he was studying reports from all the ships and training reports from both Serina and Tyber.

"How's it Sheba?" he asked from the other side of the main console looking up to meet her soft blue and green eyes.

"Good from the look of it. Her hull's strong enough to stand a jump so all we really need to do is install the drive and computer and then rig it into the systems. I'll need three engineering teams and sufficient parts from our stocks"

"How long?" he asked

"3 Days" she answered

"Alright take four to see if you can speed this is up a bit, I don't want to stay here any longer than we have too" he replied and she went to leave

"Sheba" he called and she looked back

"Don't use any unnecessary parts; we have to conserve what we have"

She nodded and left the room to get her team and parts together

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The teams crawled around _Eden _installing the drive components and computers into the ship while being helped by engineers from other ships and the locals led by a man named Harold Keikeya, a retired colonial fleet engineer who had been travelling to Caprica with his entire family wife, daughters, grandchildren to be there as a surprise for his son Billy's birthday.

A birthday that Billy would never see

After a day and a half the FTL was installed, and the fleet was given the next place to look for other survivors. Sheba was back onboard _Telmaya_ and on CIC with her friends.

The ships jumped and came to the nebula cloud with an asteroid field inside it. A perfect place to hide and to get some much needed Tylium.

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After her shift was over Sheba walked wearily to the war room were Seth had just called her from and asked her to join a meeting.

As she walked into the room she was greeted by her friends yelling

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" and for the first time in weeks she smiled

Strangely as she enjoyed the surprise party her friends had put together for her something her mother said had come to mind, only good thing or valuable thing she'd ever said.

"_The skies the limit Sheba, you make your own destiny"_

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_Major attack on Admiral Cain here, if there are any Cain fans reading then I'm sorry but I just see her as this kind of person _

_This is also why I see Cain is off men and why she allowed rape to done to Cylon Gina as she knows how damaging it is and that she regards her as nothing more than a machine_

_Eden is a Botanical Cruiser like the one seen in the movie at the beginning of the series. _

_The crew have been very lucky so far, but their luck changes soon_

_Please Review!!_


	5. Chapter 5

_I do not own Battlestar Galactica_

_Another character from the original series_

**Chapter 5 – Action Stations Part 1**

It had been a week since the asteroid field and _Telamaya's _fleet had swelled considerably. Fifteen civilians led by a transport named _Scylla_ that had been wandering since the attack had rendezvoused with their own fleet.

_Scylla_ and its own ships had had a narrow escape when they'd ran into the Battlestar _Pegasus_, they'd thought that the Battlestar was there to protect them, but Admiral Cain's intention had been strip the ships for her own gain. Fortunately there had been an officer on _Pegasus_ with a conscience and he'd radioed them before the evil officer's boarded to carry out their insane acts. The civilian ships had jumped away, but not before hearing a hail of bullets coming from the other side of the comm. The officer who'd warned them was almost certainly dead.

That raised the stakes for the _Telmaya_, now there was a mad Battlestar flying around, so it was imperative that they got to the remaining civilians before _Pegasus_ did.

The news had had a definite effect on Sheba though, the knowledge that your mother had gone completely crazy and was now more of a threat to the few remaining colonials than to the Cylons. She had become overnight infamous on some of the civilian ships.

There hadn't been any noise of the radio for quite some time, soon they would move to another area of the core systems to look for more survivors.

They were now coming close to Virgon were they were hoping to send some people to the surface and gather supplies from the wreckage of the once great world, maybe even pick up survivors, if there were any. Caprica was being occupied but it was the only planet that was, but that could change.

Then the fleet flying at sublight speeds came upon something

A battlefield

Or at least it had been a battlefield; wrecked Battlestars and vipers, alongside a couple of wrecked Cylon raiders and even a wrecked base ship.

Clearly the fleet didn't go down without a fight after all.

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_Telmaya CIC…_

They all stood silent as Dradis reported the ID beacons that were still transmitting

"_Atlantia…Solaria…Triton...Universal…Valkyrie_" Kendra read the names off the screen and the crew quickly settled into a sombre mood.

"Wait" said Lieutenant Archibald, who was manning the comms today "I'm picking up a non-repeating signal from within the debris field, it cycles every five minutes but its wording is different each time"

Seth went over to the comm. station and peered over the Lieutenant's shoulder and looked at this signal, it was using a genuine Colonial band and protocols but it could be anything

"Lieutenant, trace the source" Seth ordered stepping back to give the young fair haired young man space to work.

After a couple of minutes of working with the comms and Dradis, Archibald reported back

"The signal is coming from what looks like the broken off port pontoon of the Battlestar _Columbia_ sir"

Seth paused for thought, he'd read from the documents left in Willis's, no his office now he'd mentally corrected himself, he'd learnt that the _Columbia_ had been involved in an experiment.

Basically the two pontoons had strong vacuum sealed blast doors between them and the main hull, so that in an emergency the two pontoons could be jettisoned and act like survival pods till they could be rescued.

The pontoons had an independent power and life support system so that any crew inside could live for awhile.

"Find the starboard pontoon" Seth asked and the crew went to work with Dradis

"The starboard pontoon's in pieces" Archibald said and he located it

Damn, Seth thought "Alright have a Raptor with a medic and marine detachment prepared" he ordered and Kendra went to get it done and he turned to Archibald who tried but failed to get a response and confirmation of people inside the heavily armoured pontoon.

So the marine and medic raptor led by Tyber Jones went over to the pontoon an hour later and came to the airlock on the heavily armoured pod and docked. Using EV suits just in case there wasn't atmosphere. They airlock granted them access.

The marines raised their guns and pointed them at the entrance as it opened

They were met by the sight of colonial engineers, pilots and a couple of marines pointing their guns right at them

"Friendly! Stand down! Stand down!" Tyber Jones yelled and they all lowered their guns

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Two hours later the leader of the survivors inside the pod was on _Telmaya_, a Viper pilot named Lieutenant Bojay. He was waiting in his very dirty flight suit for the Commander to arrive and debrief him.

Seth walked in and shook Bojay's hand and gestured to a chair were he sat down opposite Bojay

"Well Lieutenant, you're lucky we picked up your signal. Now best tell me what happened"

"We were ordered by Admiral Nigala to rendezvous with the majority of the fleet for a stand against the Cylons after Picon Fleet Headquarters was destroyed in the Cylon's first wave. It was a massacre and we were the ones slaughtered, _Columbia_ was destroyed at 1400 hours by multiple nuclear and non-nuclear ordinance hits from three base ships. But prior to the destruction we jettisoned the pods and the main hull's shockwave from the explosion pushed us away. We used inventory supplies to keep alive and managed to knock together a short range wireless beacon, we changed the signal everyday so that people realised it wasn't an automated beacon, by the way, when could I speak to the commanding officer?" He looked around as if expecting someone to enter

"You're speaking to him lieutenant" Seth said, even though about ten or fifteen years younger than the lieutenant, still towered over him by a foot and a half.

"But you look only about twenty, way to young to be a commander" Bojay said thinking this was a joke

"I was appointed to this position by Commodore Willis upon his death" a little lie but he was still put in command by Willis so it wasn't that much of a lie

"Well then I will take command until further notice" Bojay said and both Tyber and Seth raised an eyebrow

"On what grounds?" Seth asked in a cold voice that made Bojay visibly shudder

"I'm a fully trained Colonial Officer, and your just a cadet" Bojay replied sounding a bit more sure of himself and before Seth could respond Tyber did

"You're only a flight lieutenant whereas the commander is a near fully trained officer with command training that has been leading this fleet for two weeks very well and kept this crew from falling into chaos" surprising both Seth and Bojay with his defence of Seth's command

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Bojay had stormed out the room in a huff, resigning in protest but that suited the crew of _Telmaya_ just fine. He found a home on the garbage scowl _Tish_ which needed a pilot. The support Bojay had hoped to get from other _Columbia_ survivors didn't come, as they were sick of his over bearing and annoying ways.

The rest of the survivors had no problem with the chain of command and were integrated into the Battlestar's crew, all 56 of them, filling some of the gaps left by the first Cylon attack. Any supplies and parts that survived were transferred to the ship, engine components, small arms and large weapon components with a small amount of ammunition, a few Type 7 Vipers, a raptor or two, parts for the two aforementioned types. Not much, but it helped.

So the fleet began a salvage operation in the debris field, some people said it was grave robbing but they needed parts.

But the civilian ships were doing this with some personnel from _Telmaya_ and raptors. The Battlestar meanwhile was setting up a perimeter and keeping an eye out for Cylons. Just in case they had set a rendezvous point if the fleet had to scatter.

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Three days had passed and the salvage operation was winding down, the parts they retrieved would keep them going for awhile and a couple of the Cylon raiders for study.

In CIC all was calm with Seth and Kendra discussing the operation

"All right; what have they got?" Seth asked while reading a report by Serina on the Viper training program's progress

"Seven FTL Drive units, seventeen oxygen recyclers, fifteen" Kendra read off the list but she never managed tell what they had fifteen of because at that moment to their horror, a Cylon Base ship jumped in.

There was shock and silence in the CIC for a moment before they shook themselves out of it, so Seth began giving orders

He picked up the inter ship speaker and said "Action Stations, Action Stations, Set Condition One throughout the ship, repeat Action Stations, Action Stations" and the crew dashed to their battle stations while pilots dashed to the ships.

Next he turned to Kendra "Send message to fleet, as soon as possible jump to prearranged co-ordinates and launch Vipers"

The crew went about their orders and the pilots braced themselves as their ships rocketed along the launch tube and into space.

The squadrons formed up in formation above _Telmaya_ as the great ship angled itself to face the Base star head on.

In CIC Kendra checked the ship's alert status "All decks report combat ready"

"Right lock in forward batteries on Base star and get me CAG" he issued his orders calmly and the crew proved him proud by responding calmly despite their nervousness.

"Siren here" Serina's voice sounded on the wireless

"Siren, this is Telmaya Actual leave Base star to us, your job is to keep the raiders from getting to civilian ships, when they've jumped out you come on straight home, understood?"

"Yes Actual, Siren out" Seth turned to Kendra,

"How long before civilian ships jump?"

"5 minutes sir"

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The Base star fired first, launching multiple warheads towards the Battlestar which slammed into the ship and she shuddered but her new armour held

Then the great ship started firing back, opening up with her main forward guns sending her own ordinance at the Base star which lit up as soon as they hit.

While the two capital ships duelled, the fighters flew towards each other, from the cockpit of her Mark 8 Serina instructed her pilots to stay in formation.

The Colonial Mark 8 was faster than a Raider and matched it for manoeuvrability. The Viper's weapons included three cannons like the Mark 7 but they also included a missile launcher under the main fuselage which launched small missiles unlike other Vipers which had to be fitted with missiles. The Mark 8 was the same size of a Mark 2 but the aerodynamics were similar to the Mark 7 but with more like a curved blade on the fins.

(To be continued)

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PLEASE Review!


	6. Chapter 6

_Disclaimer: I own several characters like Seth Trakiss but the concept of Battlestar Galactica does not belong to me_

_A question if any one knows the answer how many Vipers are there in a squadron?_

**Chapter 6 – Action Stations Part 2**

The 4 twenty strong squadrons of Vipers, numbering 80 in all zoomed into action, meeting the 4 squadrons of Raiders with cannons blazing, three Vipers and seven Raiders were destroyed in the opening barrage. Soon it descended into chaos as each side divided and started small one on one battles.

Siren (Serina) used her missile launcher to shoot one Raider down and blasted another with her cannons. She noticed ammunition shoot right past her cockpit and activated her turning thrusters on the nose of her plane to swing around and blast it.

The good thing about the Mark 8 was that the systems had inbuilt protections from hacking and were rigged to manage without networking, so they didn't lose performance without it. And a small electronic counter measure generator to jam missile lock on.

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_Telmaya_ it's self turned to bring a full broadside side of its port armaments to bare against the Base ship, sending multiple warheads into the enemy star shaped warship. The Base ship sent some of its own but _Telmaya's_ automatic guns shot the deadly warheads down before they hit. The guns were a new feature to be incorporated with isolated computers that did not network, designed to work in concert with the electronic counter measure generators to provide a very effective screen against missiles.

On _Telmaya_ CIC, the ship rocked as an occasional projectile got through the anti-missile screen and Seth and Kendra kept up the battle.

"Sir all but one of the civilians ships has jumped, only _Ortis_ left" Kendra said while clinging to the console as the ship shook again.

"Right let's see if we can get this over with. Bring out forward guns to bear again and focus all fire on the weakened centre column of the Base ship" Seth said and the navigation officer operated his station and once again the powerful forward batteries, now fully reloaded after their original firing began to blast the Base ship apart.

_Ortis_ finally jumped and Seth ordered "Right all birds home. Bring all our birds home" and the Comm officer gave the order to their Vipers, who immediately started too returned to the ship and their jump computer started calculating their co-ordinates.

The planes zoomed into the hanger, being harassed all the way by Raiders which slammed into the thick hanger doors as they closed behind the Vipers.

As soon as the ship was secure the ship vanished in a flash of light.

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A day later the fleet rendezvoused at the asteroid belt near Picon. Fortunately every ship made it but the Battlestar itself had taken causalities.

During their battle they'd lost 15 Vipers, with 4 others too badly damaged to be repaired. Also some of the Cylon warheads had managed to cause 20 crewmembers to lose their lives.

Seth as he had done before during the refit officiated over the funeral, commending their bravery and honour, but all he felt was depression. They were his responsibility, as were their deaths.

Later in his quarters curled up next to a sleeping Kendra, he pondered. Before the attack they had had 3000 crew, now they had 2783 and were sure to lose more in future battles with the Cylons. A normal _Mercury class_ Battlestar was crewed by at least 4000 although it could operate with less.

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The following morning he called a staff meeting with his department heads and the newly elected civilian liaison Hal Forrest. They thought it best that without a civil government that the civilians had at least some means of communicating their voices to the military, who were in effective command of the fleet. So all wanting to act as a liaison to the military put themselves up for election by the rest of the civilians.

Hal had put himself forward and won, so here he was.

"Now _Eden _reports that their maintenance crew is set up and seven other ships are nearly ready" Hal said, the civilian ships were having some of their personnel trained to act as mechanics so they were not so dependant on the Battlestar for aid.

"Right and repairs after the battle have been completed" Sheba said

"Now to the next item. I think we need to start training up some new crew members to fill the gaps left by our battles with the Cylons. So we need to ask around the civilians to see if there are any volunteers. What do think?" Seth asked

"Well we could use the extra help but training time could take awhile" Kendra said before looking to the others for their points of view

Tyber answered first "Well the marine core is pretty much intact so I won't need many new recruits"

Serina spoke next "Well we lost nearly an entire Viper squadron in that last battle. We've got enough spare vipers and parts to have at least 10 squadrons of Vipers but it could take time to train them up, even with the simulators given how much they had to learn. We the cadets had at least some training when we came onboard"

Tally Forego, the ship's doctor who was acquitting herself quite well added "Well I could use some more medics, right now I've only got a handful"

And Sheba said last "Given the facilities we have it shouldn't take to long to train some up"

Seth turned to Hal who looked to be thinking it over and asked "What do you think?"

Hal replied "I think there are a few young people and some older ones that would be open to the idea of joining up"

Seth "Alright if there are any volunteers tell them to be waiting at their ship's docking port in three days. Raptors will come pick them up. Agreed?"

Everyone nodded and Seth said "Right Final item. Installation of our secret weapon. How's it proceeding?"

Sheba said "Installation of the EM Cannon to the front of the ship is proceeding at a steady pace"

"EM Cannon?" Hal asked

"Electromagnetic Pulse cannon to give it its full title. The cannon sends out a concentrated blast of Electro Magnetic Radiation that shuts down anything with a electronic circuit. The problem is not only is the equipment difficult to install and program, but we have to also alter the circuits of _Telmaya_ and the smaller craft so if the weapon backfires we aren't shut down or our vipers or raptors aren't shut down if they get caught in the pulse. It was too be mounted for a trial run on _Pegasus_ but was being taken there by us. So we figured we'd use it, to bad it isn't ready yet" Sheba explained

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_A bit rushed but I hope you like it_

_A Galactica class Battlestar has a maximum crew of about 4000/5000, So I think that with a fully functional Mercury class with reserves should (which is bigger) but with greater automation should have about 4000 itself. For Pegasus which was in drydock at the time of the attack, I think that some of her crew were already on shore leave. _

_Please Review_


	7. Chapter 7

_I do not own Battlestar Galactica or any of its characters. I only made a new plot line and a few characters up to help it along_

**Chapter 7 – Training **

Hal made a transmission throughout the fleet, saying that the Battlestar was asking for volunteers and three days later Raptors picked up a number of civilians to join the Battlestar, making multiple trips most of the time. Almost 400 people of the fleet's population answered the call up and the morning they arrived on the warship, they were moved to the starboard launch bay, which had been set up with hundreds of desks.

Commander Seth Trakiss on a raised stand in front of them and he said in a loud clear voice

"Ladies and Gentlemen please take a seat" and he waited till everyone had sat down at a desk. This was when they noticed that there was a small booklet on each desk and two pens next to it

"I thank everyone for coming today and welcome you to the Colonial Fleet; in front of you is a standard aptitude test that all cadets are required to complete. It gives us an idea of what areas your personalities suit you too, however this test is just a test, if you wish to go into another area, you wishes will of course be honoured, you will have two hours to complete the test, if you have any questions please do not be afraid to ask them to the supervisors around the room" the new recruits looked around to see various crew members stationed around the test area

"Are there any questions before the test begins?" Seth asked and a hand was raised in the middle row "Yes?"

The young man seemed confused "After this test then what happens?"

Seth relaxed but kept his strict posture "After you have completed this test, you will returned to your ships and when the results are processed, this will take a week, then you will be contacted and asked to return for training" the young man nodded

"Alright you may begin" Seth said and the sound of paper rustling was heard all along the test area. Seth was wondering if it got any easier, public speaking that is. He felt as nervous as hell, but he didn't let it show, something his strict father had said

'Never show weakness'

_Flashback; Aries 13 years ago_

_In a large farm house on the sprawling hills of Aries a young eight year old Seth Trakiss was crying. Some local older boys had kicked him hard and smashed his beloved toy Viper. He wasn't hurt to badly but he was in tears out of misery and embarrassment. _

_Then a tall muscular man comes into view from a door to the boys right, his face is lined with stress from years of managing a large farm. His eyes are hard, no sign of warmth. _

"_Boy heard you got beat up by the Ellis boys?" the man said, it wasn't a question, just seeing what the boy said and the boy just nodded _

"_Speak up boy!" the father said yelling and the boy quickly replied _

"_Yes sir" the boy said frightened _

"_Now those boys going to be thinking I'm weak, because my son is weak. So you get your ass down to the yard first light tomorrow and I'm going to teach you to fight and win" the man said very harshly and the boy got up and ran away. _

_The scene shifts to the boy in a wide farm yard with animals locked up in pens. The boy is trying to lift a heavy hay bail alone and manages it after being knocked on the head by the man who comes into view from behind. _

_Again shifts to the boy punching another hay bail, under his father's demanding direction telling him to hit harder until the boy does so_

_Then shifts again to a group of 3 9 years old boys, who perched on a wall, next to a dust filled empty field, throwing stones at a small dog they had tied to a post in front of the wall. The small brown animal whimpered as it was pelted. _

_Then Seth appeared from behind them and shouted "Hey"_

_The boys turned around and smirked at the boy they had recently beaten up, and leapt off the wall, walking towards him "Scram you little puff" the lead boy said and he shoved the younger boy's shoulder. _

_But Seth stood his ground and as a the lead by threw a punch, Seth dodged and sent his own punch into the boy's rather wide stomach, winding the larger boy and then Seth pulled his leg forward with his own leg, causing the bully to fall on his butt and receive a second punch in the face from Seth, leaving him with a bloodied nose_

_The other two tried to rush Seth together, but missed due to Seth dodges and smaller size, Seth kicked one in the back of the shin and the boy crashed forward into dust of the field while the other, a weasel of a boy turned around and threw a punch at Seth, which hit this time but Seth shook it off and hit back with a kick in the older boy's crotch. He keeled over and Seth whacked hit again, this time with a final punch to the boy's gut._

_The three boys got up and ran or waddled off in the weasel boy's case, leaving Seth to free the dog that proceeded to jump up and lick Seth's face in gratitude and Seth could only smile_

_End Flashback_

Seth returned to the present and concentrated on the people in front of him.

Two hours past with supervisors moving between the desks answering occasional questions till Seth said "Please put your pens down and ensure you have managed to fill in your name and ship of origin. If you were unable to fill in all the questions then please see you nearest supervisor who ensure you can complete the test." He waited for people to do these things and when everyone was still and quiet he said

"Thank you for your co-operation, please proceed to the other end of the Launch bay where Raptors are waiting to take you back to your ships. You can be expected to be contacted in a week's time" And with that everybody got out of their desks and walked back towards the shuttles that would return them to their ships.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

When the results of the tests had been processed, the new recruits were called back and met by their new department heads. Few complained about their assignments so they went to the departments of their choices

New engineers, marines, kitchen staff, deckhands, CIC staff and pilots were trained thoroughly and most thrived under this regime but 20 dropped out.

Serina was very excited at the dozens of new pilots, some trained as Raptor pilots but most were training for Vipers.

Over several weeks they became flyers under her nearly harsh and exhaustive training, spending hours in the simulators and in actual Vipers.

When they were finished, Telmaya would have 6 full squadrons of Vipers and over 25 Raptors at her disposal. But that was a few weeks away.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Seth was in his office, sitting at his desk, reviewing the strategic information, enemy movements, ship status reports, civilian ships status. Then his door chimed and he said looking up and picking a small folder that had been lying on the other side of his desk

"Enter"

The door opened and a young woman of about walked in dressed in normal black tank sleeve less top with grey shirt under it and cargo trousers. Her hair was dark and her face was dominated by her brilliant blue eyes.

"You asked to see me sir" the young woman said saluting

Seth motioned towards the vacant chair in front of his desk "At ease ensign take a seat" and she slipped into the chair, folding her hands with obvious nervousness

"Well Amelia Cartwright I guess you're curious about why I asked you here" he said he said

Amelia nodded and looked him in the eye as if to try and guess his intent but his level and steady gaze left no clues, he opened her file

"Well as you know, you are a new recruit to Telmaya, and listed as a Viper trainee. Correct?" Seth asked and she said

"Yes commander"

"I have your review from Captain Serina. You have reasonable skill as a pilot but I think you might have more potential in other areas" Seth said his eyes meeting hers and confusion filled the luminance blue

"Sir, I thought I was doing well in training" she said, afraid she was about to be washed out

"You are ensign. But we've noticed that you have good skills in communications and scanning electronics. I think that you would be more valuable in those areas" Seth said judging her reaction

She appeared more than a little confused "Sir?"

"I will lay it out; we have no current communication specialist, only a few people who have limited training but can't manage the equipment properly only basic communications, so I want to promote you to lieutenant and put you in charge of communications in CIC. You will also be responsible for Dradis. Do you want the job?"

She was surprised, a promotion and a high assignment, she had expected to be washed out. And she nodded, with only a little hesitation.

"Here are your rank badges" he said handing her a small box "Now your first shift will be in three hours so get into proper uniform. I want my officers to set an example to the rest of the crew. Dismissed"

She saluted and with the pins in hand, walked out with a smile on her face

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

She reported to CIC on time in full uniform and took her station, interacting with the other stations well and actually improved the Dradis with other scanning devices so to provide better resolution and information.

As a member of the senior staff she attended their meetings and fast became valued as an asset.

Seth felt he had made the right decision in appointing her and as he went to his quarters a couple of weeks later he took a box out from underneath his bed. He opened it and took out a model of a Viper Mark 2, the same that the Ellis boys had smashed all those years ago. Rather than throw it away, he had laboured for hours, rebuilding it, till he had rebuilt it. He stared at it with a smile and put it on his bunk, and then he reached for the next object in the box.

He removed it; it was another model, this one a copy of the Battlestar Galactica, his father had got it for him as a present for beating up the Ellis boys and showing his strength. He wasn't sure it was a good thing to be rewarded for beating people up, but at the time he had been ecstatic.

He's always hoped to see the real Galactica one day but that chance was remote now.

He'd also been allowed to keep the dog he had rescued. A stray that he named Sito and become a very good sheepdog

The door chimed and he said

"Come"

Kendra walked in with a smile on her face and as soon as the door closed he took her in his arms and kissed her passionately.

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_Amelia's role is a mix of Gaeta and Dee's _


	8. Chapter 8

_I do not own Battlestar Galactica _

**Chapter 8 – These are the days that test us…**

The Battlestar moved through space, its fleet of civilian ships hanging a way behind.

On the CIC of the Battlestar, a klaxon was sounding. People moved around quickly from station to station.

"Action Stations all decks. Repeat all decks go to Action Stations" Amelia said into her communication system

On the hanger decks, pilots were rushing to their ships and Vipers were ready waiting in the launch tubes. Serina ran to her Viper and climbed into the cockpit. She started the onboard systems and signalled to the launch controller with a thumb up, he nodded and she braced herself as she rocketed along the launch tube into space.

Once in space she signalled her squadron 'The Wildcats' to form up on her "Ok all wings form up on me" The twenty Mark 8's moved into formation around their leader as the five other squadrons did the same

The Hydras led by Lieutenant Alison Forest

The Hex Sisters led by Lieutenant Rosa McCarno

The Titans led by Lieutenant Alexander McCarno

And Hawk Men squadron led by Lieutenant Benjamin Jacobson.

Ahead of the Colonial ships a Base ship of the Cylons moved to engage the colonial ships

As Serina gunned her Vipers engines to lead her pilots against the Cylon Raiders that were launching from the Base ship she remembered her family and Caprica

_Flashback 1 year ago Caprica…_

_In a park Serina and a young boy were running around throwing a ball to one another with their parents watching from a blanket on the ground a short distance away._

"_Come on Boxey see if can catch this one" the older sister Serina said to her younger brother Boxey. Throwing the ball high and wide Serina laughs as Boxey did a dive like that from a film in an attempt to catch the ball but missed and slid to a halt on the ground._

_As he got up brushing grass off his t-shirt, Serina howled with laughter doubling over _

"_Quit it Serina" Boxey said and Serina attempted to sober herself but still had a huge grin on her face _

"_Alright you two lunch is ready" their mother Anna Boxman shouted and the two ran over to sit by her and their father. Anna took out different wrapped up in foil foods. Soon a small feast was laid out before the family of four. _

_The father of the family named Harold Boxman said proudly "Now first things first let's congratulate Serina on getting into the Academy. With and I quote 'one of the most promising cadets I have seen' by the flight instructor" _

"_Well done Serina" the father, mother and brother said to Serina who hugged each one of them _

"_Thanks, I can't wait" said Serina and Boxey frowned _

"_What's wrong Boxey?" Anna asked _

"_It's just I really can't wait. I want to go too" Boxey admitted _

"_And you will Boxey, when you're old enough. Right now just enjoy yourself" Harold assured his son_

"_Right little brother" Serina said_

_End Flashback_

Serina came back to the present and jerked her stick forward to accelerate and shake off a Cylon Raider that was trying to chase her down. She executed a 180 degree turn and fired her cannons, ripping into a raider that was on her tail before blasting off with her engines to begin chasing down another raider.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The ship shook as CIC was buzzing with activity. At her station Amelia was tracking all the ships on Dradis and relay them to the automatic targeting computers by secured comm. lines to fire the guns. This was done to avoid networking the systems.

She remembered the day were she and her step dad had first seen action.

_Flashback Fall of the Colonies SS Fortitude…_

_The SS Fortitude was an old ship, once it was a military supply vessel during the Cylon war, transporting weapons, fuel, part or personnel to the fighting ships so they could keep up the war. _

_But after the war it had proven largely unnecessary so she was sold to the salvage yard on_ _Sagittaron like most decommissioned Colonial Military craft. But she was saved from the Scrapheap by a man named Augustus Cartwright, a Gemonese merchant who wanted to set up his own cargo hauling business. _

_But the reality of a business based on a fleet of vessels never materialised and all the work he could get was small time contracts between the poorest colonies. _

_Never the less he kept up his work as a hauler, refitting the ship with new engines and other equipment, and when he died he past the ship to his son who took it over. _

_And his son Magnus whose dream had always been to run his father's ship took the job with vigour. And for most of time he kept it going._

_But when he turned forty he faced a dilemma, he wanted to give the ship over to his own children one day but there were two problems. _

_First Magnus was gay and second he was infertile. _

_So adoption was his only choice was choice for him and his boyfriend Patrick. So on a rare trip to Caprica they went to an orphanage and looked for a child to raise as their own. _

_They found Amelia, a girl left on the doorstep of the orphanage as a baby in the freezing cold. No name tag, no nothing, she was named Amelia by the care staff. _

_Raised onboard ship Amelia showed great talent in communications and Dradis technology and made the Fortitude's comms and Dradis better than most military ships. _

_But then the attack o the colonies came from the Cylons, Fortitude was arriving in orbit of Aquria when it came. Dodging the incoming missiles and sustaining several hits managed to jump away and rendezvousing with 14 other ships to make up the Scylla's fleet. _

_But the day had ended in tragedy for Amelia; during their escape from Aquria a missile had caused a hull breach sucking her adopted father into space. _

_Flashback end…_

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Meanwhile in the landing bay rapid response teams of the Marine Corp under Tyber Jones were taking defensive positions around the landing bay, if the Cylons tried to board then this would be the most likely place for them to try than a secured airlock, and there were only three of them.

Their weapons primed the marines were now to meet their enemy.

A heavy Raider flew into the unsecured hanger, unsecured because pilots might need to make an emergency landing. The Cylon craft landed gracefully on the deck and its cargo ramp descended.

Then the Silver Centurions of the Cylons emerged and with their gun hands already firing. One marine was hit by the opening barrage, going down with a yell. The marines returned the favour and opened fire.

The assault rifle fire cut down two centurions and severely damaged another. The two sides started fighting. The Cylons were strong and tough but the marines had cover and the centurions were out in the open.

So the powerful weapons of the marines kept cutting down the Centurions, the Cylons did get a couple of marines but the marines' position was too strong.

Once they had cut down the emerging centurions they moved from their positions to enter the Raider and capture it.

Once they got on they ran to the pilot station and sitting there doing take off checks very quickly was…

A woman, maybe mid twenties to very early thirties, she had very pale skin with blond hair that was almost white. When she turned to face them Tyber hit her with the butt of his rifle.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hours after the battle were Telmaya had scored its first real victory over the Cylons by destroying the Base ship and all its raiders.

But more important was that they now had a prisoner. An organic Cylon that now sat in their brig.

The fleet proceeded towards their next destination

The planet Scorpia, one of the twelve colonies


	9. Chapter 9

_I do not own Battlestar Galactica_

**Chapter 9 – Ghost Planet**

The fleet arrived in order of Scorpio, the industrial world of the twelve colonies. The people of Scorpio were known for their technical expertise and that had led them to become one of the wealthiest colonies. The engineering smarts of the Scorpio was why the Colonial Fleet had put their shipyard there.

Now the settlements were deserted, the roads filled with abandoned cars, the sky a yellow haze.

No-one there just like a ghost town.

Many on Scorpio lived in the large cities which were reduced to craters by the Cylon bombardment leaving nothing but ruins; the smaller towns and villages slowly dying off from radiation.

And unknown to the fleet though any remaining survivors were removed by the Cylons for purposes that were yet unknown. But much of the machinery was still there and in usable condition. Also medicines were kept in radiation proof lockers to ensure they were not contaminated. A decade or so ago there had been a major radiological disaster on Aquarius where a power plant's nuclear reactor had blown and spread radiation across a small island group. The hospitals stash of anti-radiation drugs was corrupted and rendered useless. After it had become standard policy on all of the colonies that medicine be stored in radiation proof containers.

As the fleet established orbit of Scorpio they checked the surface with their instruments and prepared landing teams with their own supply of anti-radiation drugs. They were trying to build up supplies of equipment and medicine before they left the colonies, which would be soon.

Raptors descended to the surface carrying both civilians and military personnel led by Sergeant Major Tyler Jones and Lieutenant Amelia Cartwright, their job to see if anything could be salvaged and add to their own resources. Hospitals and military surplus yards were prime targets for the teams.

* * *

The sky had a yellowish haze to it. That was the first thing the Amelia had noticed when she exited her Raptor near the small town of Saris. It had a decent hospital and there would be plenty of medicines. As she wandered through the deserted streets a chill ran up her spine, toys, cars and other things littered the ground, remnants of lives that the people had left behind.

They arrived at the hospital and building looked to be intact, they pulled open the doors and walked inside the patients had died on their beds but other than that they seen no bodies as of yet.

She found the medicine store and loaded up their carts with different drugs and surviving equipment ad wheeling them out. They would have to go through decontamination when they got back but that was only a precaution.

But another discovery was made close to the hospital, a _Nightingale class_ Hospital Ship. Designed in emergencies to act as a movable hospital the best medical equipment was there and she could be added to the fleet.

She did manage to recover the hospital database to see if there was anything that was useful and going to head up with them.

* * *

Seth meanwhile was dealing with another situation, very strange one mind you. The woman in _Telmaya's_ brig

Stripped of her suit she had been dressed in a plain smock and chained to floor. Apart from the bruise on her head she was unharmed and defiant.

Seth and Hal who had been informed of her presence simply didn't know what to do with her. Seth doubted he could get more information out of her and killing her would deny them the chance to see if they get some out of her at all.

He just stared at her from behind the plastic screen and she stared back, daring each other to make the first move.

Seth moved first entering the cell

"You got a name?" Seth asked

The Cylon remained silent

"Fine then I'll just have to give you one, how about-" Seth started but she interrupted him

"Selena" she said simply without emotion

"Well Selena I don't know what to do with you. There are plenty of people out of this room who would love to get a chance for some payback and against a pretty lady like you that would doubtless mean rape" Seth said

Selena unconsciously silvered

"But I won't let them" Seth finished

She looked surprised

"You'll get two meals a day, none if you cause trouble, behave and we'll give you some other clothes, understood?" Seth asked

She nodded slightly

"Good" Seth said and left

Selena watched him leave and was puzzled by his attitude

'_I just don't get it. I would have expected torture and rape, instead they're treating me…with…mercy'_

* * *

Seth got to CIC were Kendra was taking the watch.

"Report" Seth said

Kendra looked up from some documents she was reading and said "No sign of any toasters and no survivors yet, in fact no bodies either"

"That's strange the towns and villages have been largely left alone and although pounded by radiation not enough to kill instantly" Seth said "And the bodies wouldn't have decomposed yet so what happened to them?"

"No idea, we've had raptors to a complete survey of the planet and no signs of survivors anywhere"

Seth pondered this but Kendra brought him out of her thoughts with a question

"Did you get anything out of the toaster?"

"No and I don't expect too. She doesn't seem to fear death"

"Then why keep her alive?"

"Simple I want to prove to her that not all humans are evil, that we don't deserve extinction, if we were evil we would use torture and rape to get her tongue loose but I refuse to descend to that level"

Kendra nodded, one of things she loved about this man was that he stuck to his morals as long as he was at the helm; they would never end up like _Pegasus_.

* * *

Tyler Jones meanwhile was investigating the military surplus yard, a place where the military stored equipment for their reserve or for the former ship yard. Missiles, artillery, arms both large and small, ship parts, equipment even whole support ships. Already they had recovered stocks of Class D and E warheads, additional batteries to be mounted onto _Telmaya_, plenty of vipers and raptors, many nuclear warheads and 4 marine troopships designed to be launched from a Battlestar.

Why the Cylons hadn't destroyed this place Tyler didn't understand. Probably thought no-one would dare come back to get anything from this place.

'Well their loss was _Telmaya's_ gain' Tyler thought

* * *

Nearly a week later the operation was finishing up and they now had almost filled up their stores. The _Nightingale_ was docked in _Telmaya's_ bay because it did not have a crew of its own.

With their stocks almost full they only needed to make another stop before they left the Colonies for good.

The Olympus Anchorage

* * *

In the brig Selena looked at her new boiler suit and although it wasn't exactly stylist it was better than the smock she had had before. The guards seemed curious at her at first but seemed to mostly ignore her now, like she was just a normal prisoner. The rations were given twice like the Commander had said and so far no-one had tried to harm her.

She just didn't know what to think, but a feeling was creeping up on her

'Maybe we were wrong about them'

* * *

_Next chapter - When tigers meet_


	10. Chapter 10

_I do not own Battlestar Galactica_

**Chapter 10 – Discoveries**

_Telmaya's_ fleet approached the green haze that was the Olympus Anchorage site. They didn't know if the Anchorage was still there but if it was then they could get all the ammunition they would need to safely leave the colonies.

After combing the area of the outer colonies one last time, they had gathered what could be the last civilian ships. Their fleet now consisted of;

1 Battlestar, 2 Mining Vessels, 8 Cargo ships, 4 Agro ships, 2 Botanical Cruisers, 2 Gemon Liner, 2 Pan Galactic Liners, 2 Flattop class repair vessels, 3 Refinery Ships and 1 Colonial Mover, 1 Scrap Hauler, 1 Science Vessel, 1 Skybus, 1 Automated Construction Ship and 1 Tylium Hauler.

All in all thirty ships so far, about 25,000 people crammed aboard those ships.

Covering a fleet this size with just one Battlestar was a nightmare, the big ship had to stay relatively in the centre of the fleet so it could move where ever needed quickly and send its Vipers out when needed.

Seth had had to expand the number of available Vipers to handle the increase of ships to protect. True it could be done with less but less equalled less protection which scared the civilians. Now the ships had eight squadrons of Mark 8 Vipers that either were made up from storage or new ones from the advanced production plant.

Seth was currently sitting in the ward room waiting for Sheba to give her report on what she had learned from studying the captured Cylon Heavy Raider.

Kendra sat at his right hand, drumming her fingers against the table letting out a yawn

Hal was leaning back in the chair opposite Seth, he was dozing. Seth regarded the other man. Leaving the captains of the fleet to run their own affairs had proven less than productive, often hoarding things ranging from food, fuel to just about any resource, so the captains in a mutual agreement (after a little convincing) had agreed to set up a civilian government of sorts, it was really a sort of congress with representatives from each ship coming together on _Telmaya_ (as it was neutral ground for civilian matters) who were co-ordinated by an elected chair person.

The civilians liked democracy so they were given it, but the military would remain separate from the civilian authority under Seth's control.

When the matter of who would be the elected chairman came pretty much every captain in the fleet put their name down, so there was going to have to be a democracy election soon, for the moment although a military man Seth had to do it as the highest current official.

The door suddenly parted and a rather harried looking Sheba rushed in carrying a pile of documents in one arm and an even larger one in the other.

"Sorry I'm late" Sheba said breathlessly putting the documents on the table and taking a few quick calming breathes

Seth merely raised an eyebrow and gestured for Sheba to take a seat.

"Thanks" Sheba said and dropped into the nearest unoccupied chair and let out a breath, to which Kendra just rolled her eyes.

"Right maybe you could start your report" Seth said with a little edge in his voice, trying to get things back on track

"Well we managed to get a look at the Raider's database, looks like Blondie managed to erase some of it but not all, we got the flight recorder and saw at least three other people coming on the Raider and getting off before they used the raider to board _Telmaya_" Sheba reported becoming the all business officer

"So we now know the faces of at least four Cylon models?" Hal asked, they still knew so little of the Cylons

"Yes, I have got pictures here" Sheba handed a folder to Seth and another to Hal, they opened the folders and looked at the four prints inside

One of an older man with grey hair, a younger man with slicked back brown hair, a picture of Selena and another blond woman.

Seth knew nearly every member of his crew having interviewed them or knowing them from campus back in the academy days and he didn't recognise any of these new three.

But Hal it seems did as a small look of horror as he looked on the younger man's picture

"That's…That's Miles. One of my Raptor pilots" Hal said shocked, but Seth lost no time and got up and went straight for the inter-ship phone on the wall.

He picked it up and spoke to the com officer on watch "Get me Sergeant Major Jones at once" Seth ordered and the com officer said "One moment"

Then the deep voice of Sergeant Major Tyber Jones sounded "Yes Commander?"

"Get a marine detachment together and report to the hanger deck, I'll meet you there, I need you to go and capture a suspected Cylon amongst _Shovel's_ crew" Seth said

"Understood sir" Tyber said and hung up on his end and Seth put the receiver back on its rest

"Make copies of these pictures and have them ready for the Congress meeting tomorrow" Seth ordered after turning the face Sheba who nodded

* * *

Twenty minutes later a squad of ten marines departed _Telmaya_ to _Shovel_ in a Raptor. Their orders were to arrest the suspected Cylon agent matching the photograph that they had been given by the Commander on the hanger deck.

As they landed in the small hanger bay of _Shovel_ they checked their weapons, their orders were to bring this guy back alive, but if necessary they would defend themselves.

Once the raptor landed, the marines disembarked and asked the flight co-ordinator where this 'Miles' was. The flight co-ordinator directed them to the ship's galley.

The marines moved through the grimy and dimly lit corridors of the mining ship drawing much attention, the crew whispering in hushed voices as they past.

They soon arrived in the galley they sighted their target, he had been sitting down to a bowl of cereal but like everyone else in the galley turned to face the marines

Tyber stepped forward facing 'Miles' and spoke "Miles Olsen you are to accompany us to _Telmaya_ were you will be held until such time as you are deemed guilty or innocent of the crimes that you are accused"

Everyone turned to Miles who asked in a panicky voice "What are the charges?"

Then everyone turned back to Tyber who fixed him with a steady glare "Being a Cylon agent"

The stunned silence was immediate; everyone looked at Miles with shocked eyes which quickly turned to Miles with suspicion and hatred

Miles sighed and drew a gun from the inside of his overalls

The _Shovel's_ crew dived for cover with some yelps and small screams while _Telmaya's_ marines raised their own weapons and pointed them straight at the Cylon who smiled and put the gun to the side of his head

Before the marines could do anything, he pulled the trigger and a splat of blood sprayed onto the nearby wall and the body fell to the ground

* * *

"We searched his bunk but all we found was this" Tyber reported handing a small white device which was split into two and connected by a grey material with small holes in it to Seth who examined it for a moment before placing it into a secure box which Tyber closed.

"Take it to the Sheba's workshop, have her take a look" Seth ordered and Tyber nodded

"You going to ask the Cylon about it?" Tyber asked

Seth nodded "Doubt I'll get anything, but it's worth a shot" and Tyber fixed him with a curious look

"Why don't you just kill it?" Tyber asked

"Because there's nothing to be gained from killing her, while improbable we might get some information from her and at the very least, we can rest in the knowledge that we are not killers like them" Seth and Tyber nodded, the two men had managed to build a relationship of mutual trust and respect, they trusted each other to do their jobs

"What about the body?" Tyber asked

"Send it to the _Pasteur_ and let the good doctor examine it, anything that might help us detect Cylons would be useful at this point" Seth ordered

* * *

Selena sat against the wall in her cell trying to think of ways to past the time, she wasn't allowed any thing and the guards generally just ignored her

Then the door parted and the Commander of this vessel entered, he stood tall in his full uniform and with a folder under his arm

She looked up from her position in the cell and regarded him with curiosity and he just gave a blank stare

He walked up to the cell door and opened it, stepping inside he motioned for Selena to sit in the centre of the cell, Selena decided it was better to comply and learn why he was here.

He sat opposite her and placed the folder on the floor and took out a picture which he placed in front of her

She knew the face on it immediately, it was a 5.

"We got this off the Raider's flight recorder along with two other faces" Seth told her and withdrew two other pictures one of a 1 and another of a 3.

"When we went to arrest this man on one of our ships" Seth told her indicating the picture of the younger man "But he shot himself the moment he knew that we had him cornered. I know it could have just be avoid capture, but its more than that, it's like you organic Cylons don't fear death"

Selena smiled "That's because we don't"

Seth regarded her careful before asking "Why?"

"When we die we will just wake up somewhere else in an identical body" Selena said still smiling

Seth just stared in stunned silence before regrouping "Why are you telling me this?"

"This knowledge can't hurt me and tells you that you can't kill us, at least not permanently" She said confidentially, before Seth picked up the file and photos and with one last look at her got up and left

* * *

After learning the information about Cylon Reincarnation Seth immediately went to the CIC and order an emergency jump to the Olympus Anchorage in case the Cylon they just kill gave away their position

Olympus Anchorage was very similar to the Ragnar Anchorage, a single space station inside an electromagnetic storm cloud. The fleet hoped to get enough ammunition to fill their stocks before leaving the star system for the Promar sector.

Descending through the cloud, the ships shook slightly as they were rocked by turbulence.

Then they came within Dradis range of the station

Then the alert klaxon sounded as an unknown contact came into range in orbit of the station, which looked to be intact.

Seth ordered action stations and the crew rushed to their positions, bracing for a fight

* * *

But the unknown vessel was not Cylon, it was 1625 metres long, had a main body with two pontoons one on either side.

And on each pontoon there stood a name engraved, five letters

_Rycon_

* * *

_Please Review_


	11. Chapter 11

_Disclaimer: I do not own Battlestar Galactica or any of its elements_

_Rycon is the same class of Battlestar as Valkyrie _

"_Communication signals"_

**Chapter 11 – Hierarchy **

The CIC of _Rycon_ was silent and they tracked the incoming ships, like angels descending from heaven. The officer of the watch Lieutenant Colonel Beatrix Ishii a woman in her early thirties of oriental descent who hailed from Canceron was stunned like her subordinates at the sight of so many of their own kind after the fall of the colonies when they had thought everyone else dead…was indescribable.

Then the Battlestar that was leading the fleet opened its communication channels _"This is the Battlestar Telmaya to the unknown vessel orbiting Olympus Anchorage. Identify yourself or you will be fired upon"_

Beatrix shook herself and frowned, she had never heard of a '_Battlestar Telmaya_' but she put aside her own doubts and told Ensign Damon Taylor a young man from Caprica "Open a channel" he nodded and did as she requested

"_This is the Battlestar Rycon to the ship calling itself Battlestar Telmaya, you are unknown to us, send us colonial recognition codes or we will open fire"_ she said into the speaker and waited for a response, but she preyed

'Lords of Kobol hear my prayer…' she hoped it was a miracle

Telmaya's CIC however was not quiet. It was in its normal busy mode as they received the _Rycon's_ transmission;

"_This is the Battlestar Rycon to the ship calling itself Battlestar Telmaya, you are unknown to us, send us colonial recognition codes or we will open fire"_ she said into

Seth turned to Amelia and ordered "Lieutenant send the codes" and she replied "Yes sir"

The crew were ecstatic, another Battlestar, one that hopefully wasn't mad like _Pegasus_, and they never thought they would see the day. They suddenly all found themselves going about their duties with a fresh vigour

Seth and Kendra however were worried; the commander of the _Rycon_ would likely outrank Seth and although they would obey the word of command they were worried he or she would disrupt the precarious balance that had settled across the fleet.

After a couple of minutes another signal came from the _Battlestar Rycon __"This Rycon Actual requesting Telmaya Actual"_ in a deep masculine voice

Seth picked up the receiver and spoke into it _"This is Telmaya Actual to Rycon Actual, this is a miracle" _

On the Rycon CIC a dark skinned bald man in a Colonial Commander's uniform spoke into the receiver

"_Yes it is Telmaya. Yes it is" _Commander Fredrick Robins smiled as the crew around brought into excited whispers

As the fleet came to orbit the Anchorage a Raptor from _Rycon_ left its carnivorous bays and flew towards the _Telmaya_.

_Telmaya's_ crew stood in an honour guard to welcome their new ally as the Raptor docked and landed in the bay

"Attention" Kendra shouted as the crew stood straight to attention as the Raptor door opened. The marines exited first, all standing in defensive position, then an oriental woman in a colonel's uniform and then the commander himself exited

He was a tall man, his light brown skin and hairless head were his most apparent features, his face was largely expressionless but there was a certain smugness in his features when he looked at those around him.

He saluted and the honour guard returned it and Seth who was at the head of the formation stepped forward

"Commander Robins, welcome to _Telmaya_" he said his arms behind his back

"Yes commander now if we could get to the briefing room there are questions I want answered" Robins said dismissing the honour guard completely and Seth's eyes narrowed

"Yes sir" he said in a low voice and the pair walked out leaving the two groups to intermingle

The two men walked quickly to the briefing room where Robins wasted no time

"First off, how did you get command of a Battlestar? You're way too young" he said in a voice that was quite mocking

Seth gritted his teeth but answered in a respectful tone "Commodore Willis promoted me to this position upon his death after the fall of the colonies"

"That may be so, but I do not feel comfortable leaving a Battlestar in the hands of people as young as you" Robins said and Seth's temper started to rise

"Then you had better find another crew since most of them are under twenty and they've being doing above and beyond the call of duty for weeks. Insult me all you want, but never insult my crew" Seth said firmly pushing his temper down

Robins regarded him for a moment and moved on to another subject "How have you kept the civilians in line?"

"We set up a civilian authority outside of military control, its democracy and they like it and it means their not rebelling against a military dictatorship" Seth explained

Robins shook his head and said "Inefficient, since you seem to want to mess around rather than do something properly I' am relieving you of command, Lieutenant Colonel Ishii will take command effective immediately and tell this civilian government that they are hereby dissolved"

"What?!" Seth said starting to lose his temper "If you think the civilians will stand idly by while you take apart their government?"

"I don't care, they'll do as their told or lose protection" Robins said arrogantly

"Not with my ship you won't" Seth said standing straight face to face with Robins

"I have relieved you of command" Robins said

Seth said back "I gathered the fleet together and I will not stand idly by while you take it apart, if you think my crew will follow that order you are gravely mistaken" he hissed at the dark skinned man

The two men glared at each other, willing the other to cave in first

"We'll settle this later" Robins said and went to leave

"We have a Cylon prisoner aboard" Seth said and Robins turned around

"Execute it"

"Why?" Seth asked

"Just follow orders" Robins growled and stormed out

Seth wasted no time and went for the ship communication system on the wall of the briefing room

"Get me Tyber" he ordered and waited as he was connected

"Jones" the deep voice of Tyber sounded

"Tyber meet me at the Cylon cell in twenty minutes with a squad of your best men, keep it small, I have a mission for you" Seth said discretely

"Yes sir"

Selena was bored and feeling a little strange, like a tingling all over on the skin when the door hissed open and in walked the Commander and some marines

"Bindings" Seth said to one of the marines who handed them over and walked into the cell securing Selena's wrists

"What's going on?" she asked and Seth said

"Saving your skin" he turned back to the marines

"Take her and hide on one of the civilian ships for a few days till I can deal with Robins" they nodded but Tyber asked

"Why?"

"Robins is trying to dissolve the civilian government and have her executed without trying to get information. Sound suspicious?" Seth asked

"Yes" Tyber said hesitantly

"Why are you trying to save me?" Selena asked

Seth turned to face her and said "When I have an answer I'll give it you"

Seth knew he had no time to waste he had to stop Robins from getting a foot hold so he went straight to the CIC

Lieutenant Colonel Ishii was here having some kind of argument with Kendra and Sheba

"I' am here as of Commander Robins instructions to take command of this vessel immediately" was the gist of what Ishii was saying

Kendra and Sheba were saying much more colourful but the gist of it was "Not a chance in hell you frakker"

"Ishii you will stand down immediately or I will relieve you" Seth said coming up from the starboard entrance

"With all due respect sir you have been relieved" Ishii said turning to face him

"Not from the orders of a man who is violating civilian rights under the Caprica Carter, civilians are entitled to their own government without the military involving themselves. It is a matter of human rights. Your commander is violating that by trying to dissolve their assembly and that gives me the authority to relief him of command" Seth said playing his trump card

The stunned silence that followed let grins form on the faces of his crew, he knew they would side with him but their loyalty warmed his heart regardless

Ishii hadn't known about the civilian government being dissolved but she knew that Robins was indeed breaking the law and looking around her she knew that there would be no support if she continued she took another tact

"Alright Commander but I will need to contact my ship to confirm this" Robins had returned to _Rycon_ some time ago

On the _Rycon_ things were taking a more disturbing turn

Robins marched onto the CIC and demanded "Action Stations!" while a white and black disk in his quarters pulsed silently

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	12. Chapter 12

_I do not own Battlestar Galactica _

**Chapter 12 – One becomes Two **

Lieutenant Amelia Cartwright was monitoring the Dradis when she noticed disturbing signals from _Rycon_

"Sir _Rycon_ just went to action stations" she quickly reported to her commanding officer who was startled

"What the hell is he doing? Go to Combat stations and tell the fleet to retreat to a safe distance. Colonel Ishii would you like to explain?" he said taking action quickly and looking accusingly at the Asian officer standing across the console from him

"Look I don't know anymore than you do…sir" she answered back, deciding since she was surrounded by his supporters to respect his rank

"Well if he is gunning for a fight we have the advantage. We're far more powerful than he is and better armoured" Sheba offered to the conversation

"Yes but I would rather not engage in a battle with our own ships while the Cylons are knocking at our door" Seth responded and then suddenly Amelia reported

"Sir Missile launch from _Rycon_!"

The smaller Battlestar launched a missile at the much larger _Telmaya_. It impacted on the starboard pontoon, leaving some burns but the _Telmaya's_ strong armour shrugged it off.

The _Telmaya's_ CIC felt only a slight tremor as the missile impacted, Seth turned to the tactical officer

"All point defence weapons shoot down any incoming enemy fire, but no return of fire on _Rycon_"

"No return of fire sir?" Amelia asked

"Yes lieutenant, I have no intention of killing Colonials if I have a choice. Get me the _Rycon_ now" he answered his communications officer

"Yes sir" she answered and went to work

"Fire Mark 17 High yield striker this time, missile tube 5" Robins ordered on the CIC of the _Rycon_, his crew looked at him as though he had completely lost it

"But sir, that's a colonial vessel" said the third officer Major Quintus is shock, he had been unable to stop Robins from firing the first missile which he did himself after ordering action stations

"That ship is degenerative to the continued survival of mankind and must be destroyed" Robins explained as perspiration formed on his brow and a head ache formed, the nebula was beginning to affect him

'Come on shoot back, you stupid ape descendant" Robins thought to himself

Then the communications officer Ensign Mahield reported "Sir Signal from Telmaya, putting it on speaker"

"Ensign close that channel-" Robins started but couldn't finish before Seth started speaking

"Crew of _Battlestar Rycon_ hear me. You have fired on us without provocation and your captain is accused of violating the Caprica Accords of Civilian Rights. Stand down immediately"

In an instant all the CIC crew of _Rycon_ turned to their CO and Major Quintus asked "_Telmaya_ actual this is Major Quintus on _Rycon_ please repeat. Did you say _Rycon_ Actual is accused of breaking civilian rights?" the usually quiet major asked his suspicions growing

"Yes, he attempted to dissolve a legitimate civilian government" Seth answered him

"Commander, under the Caprica Accords I hear by relieve you of command and am placing you under arrest" Quintus said motioning for the marines standing guard by the door to the CIC

Robins seeing what was happening pulled out his side arm and aimed at Quintus

"You pathetic ape!" he yelled but before he could fire the marines snapped into action and raised their rifles, gunning the dark skinned commander down

The silence permeated the CIC and Quintus said quite clearly "Stand down combat stations"

From the statement Robins had said before he died and a quick search of his quarters the truth about him being a Cylon emerged but there was no time to deal with this issue as the beacon was soon discovered, and a scout patrol spotted three Cylon Baseships jump close to the cloud's perimeter and hold position

One the _Telmaya_, Seth asked the senior officers to join him to make a plan

"With this cloud we can't see out and they can't see in. But we don't know if they know our numbers" Seth said to the gathered officers and civilian leaders

"But I'm convinced they don't know about _Rycon_" Seth said to the audience after a pause to let what he had sink in

"Why?" Colonel Ishii asked

"I think it was Robins task to try and turn us against each other so we couldn't organise enough to become a threat" Seth explain and she nodded her head

"So we have Rycon as our trump card. In a straight battle we could probably take them down but not before suffering heavy damage" Sheba estimated and Quintus said

"Which plays into their hands; is there no way we could just retreat?" He asked Lieutenant Cartwright who shook her head

"No sir, by the time half our fleet is in a position to jump, they'd be in a position to fire"

"Then we need to distract the Cylons long enough for the civilians to jump without being too badly damaged ourselves" Colonel Shaw surmised

"Speaking of which has your chief engineer and flight crews removed the software that the Cylons used to infiltrate our computers from your craft?" Seth asked and Quintus nodded

"Yes we stripped it out of the computers in _Rycon_, Raptors and Vipers and we deactivated the networking of the computer systems as ordered"

"Good then they won't be able to shut you down, but that still leaves the problem with the three baseships" Tyber said

The room was silent and then Seth had a brain wave

"I have a plan, now this is what I want you to do…" he explained to his captive audience

When you must fight a battle, choosing where and when to fight can change the odds greatly in your favour.

The Colonials hadn't chosen the exact field of battle but they had the advantage of the Cylons not knowing their exact numbers

_Telmaya_ emerged from the cloud much as Galactica had during the battle of Ragnor Anchorage and established a perimeter to distract the Cylons while the civilians jumped out from the other side of the cloud.

Firing her main battery and deploying her fighters she managed to heavily damage one Baseship and defend herself from another, but as the third closed in _Telmaya_ fired a nuke in its path.

The nuke exploded before it hit the target but to avoid another shot the Baseship moved closer to the cloud so to throw off the Battlestar's aim.

This was a mistake that the Colonials had been waiting for

From inside the cloud a rapid fire barrage emerged ripping into the Baseship which was too close to avoid the attack

The Baseship quickly succumbed to the vicious assault that reduced the Baseship to a smouldering hulk that broke apart in a fiery explosion

The Battlestar _Rycon_ then emerged from just inside the cloud and moved to join the main action. The nuke had been a signal from the _Telmaya_ to its follow Battlestar telling it was time to join the fight and the nuke was strong enough to detected exploding even in the cloud which gave _Rycon_ a baring on where to shoot

Surprised by the sudden appearance the other two Baseships were quickly destroyed and after the remaining civilian ships where gone, they recalled their vipers and jumped away too.

Some time later on a Baseship orbiting Caprica, 2 Model 1's met

"The 4 'Robins' failed use, now instead of making the colonial fleet weaker, we made it stronger now they have joined together" one of the Cylons 'Sim' said

"The Robins plan has failed; the Battlestar Telmaya has become too big of an irritation to ignore. We must take stronger action" the other one 'John' replied

"What are you proposing?" Sim asked

"Rest assured it will destroy them, I promise you that" John said with a sinister grin on his face

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	13. Chapter 13

_I do not own Battlestar Galactica and this is not made for money, just for fun_

**Chapter 13 – Operation CP-789**

The Battlestar _Telmaya_ and its civilian fleet now accompanied by the Battlestar _Rycon_ moved at Sublight towards the red line, they were almost certain that they wouldn't find any other colonial ships now. So the Civilian Assembly and Military had decided it was time to leave the area, time to journey past the red line and into space to find a new home.

They had reached the area where the armistice line had once been and crossed over to the Cylon side, less than a year ago this would have been an act of war but now there was little point when the Cylons had moved first and the Colonies had fallen

There was little known about this area because of the former armistice so they had no real idea where they were going, but this was the closest route to the Promar Sector which had been chosen at random as their destination. They were currently upgrading their own FTL drives with Cylon technology reverse engineered from the raiders that had captured so for the moment till the whole fleet was upgraded it was best to remain at sublight for now

In the _Telmaya_ CIC all was quiet for once, outside of regular operations; Major Sheba Cain was on watch today. The Navigation operators were creating new star charts as they went and watching out for any potential obstacles, but apart from some deserted uninhabitable planets there was little too see

Trakiss was in his office writing up crew reports and log entries, as well as proposals from different ships in the fleet. Some wanted parts or supplies, some engineering assistance. He went through the list and deciding what was possible and what wasn't. The civilian assembly usually handled these matters but due to the manufacturing capabilities of _Telmaya_ they were still catering to some of the fleet's needs.

Lieutenant Colonel Kendra Shaw was in her quarters, reading a book that she had bought just before the fall but hadn't had to chance to read till now. It was a tale set in Caprica City but before space travel where a private eye was on a case where a wealthy merchant was murdered and the investigator soon found himself caught up in a world of political intrigue and family feuds

* * *

Serina was in the rec room playing Triad with the other pilots

"So whose bet is it?" Ensign Brenda Margo 'Willow' said studying her cards

"Still yours" Ensign Wilma Ackerman 'Wild Child' answered without looking up

"Alright I see you twenty and raise you forty" Brenda said putting in a pile of chips into the pot

"Ok" Serina said watching the action looking at her own cards and said "Forty and forty" she added her larger bet to the pot

They all looked at her and tried to judge whether she was buffing or not and her emotionless face showed no indication

"Too rich for me" Brenda said throwing her cards to the table followed by Deck Hand Toby Silverman who had joined them to make up four players

"Well I guess it's just you and me" Wilma said to Serina with a grin which Serina returned and put her cards on the table showing Three Colours

The two other pilots whistled and Wilma threw down her cards

"Another round?" Serina asked grinning like a Cheshire cat, causing the other three to groan

* * *

On the CIC they were coming close to a small asteroid field near a planet with a breathable atmosphere, where they hoped to fill up their water tanks and maybe some food if there was any there

Then an alert klaxon sounded and Lieutenant Daniel Llewellyn reported "Major weapon fire detected in on the other side of the field from multiple vessels"

"Identify" Sheba ordered turning to the officer working the Dradis station "Go to action stations, set condition one throughout the ship" the officers quickly sounded the alert klaxon which blared throughout the ship causing people to jump to attention from whatever they were doing

Daniel worked quickly and read the comm. signals to get an ID on the warring ships

* * *

In the command centre of one the ship's a man was thrown to the floor as the ship shook from an impact of a nuclear warhead against the ship's armour, other crewmembers clung to their stations to stay upright

A hand grabbed the centre console and tensed as the owner pulled himself up, an older human man with a trail of blood descending down his face from a cut by his thin grey hair.

"Report" he called out

A young Caucasian woman with mussed up chestnut hair answered "Compartment 9 is exposed to space; batteries 5 through 8 are inoperable and we're losing main power" she said with distress evident in her voice

"What about the other ships?" the grey commander asked

"_Achilles _is holding her own but _Ulysses _is dead in the water" she answered fearfully looking at her flickering console

"Sir Baseships are firing again" another officer said

* * *

The three baseships fired standard missiles into the colonial warships that they were fighting

The Colonial ships were also three in number but only one was a Battlestar. The Battlestar _Vulcan_ was a _Valkyrie_ class, the same as the _Rycon_.

The _Achilles_ was an older ship, much older, a dreadnaught from the age before the first Cylon War. Originally battleships that bristled with guns and aimed towards capital ship to capital ships fighting, heavily armour plated these ships could take massive amount of punishment and unleash a terrifying amount of firepower they were the very symbol of Colonial military power and seen much action through the first years of the war.

But then the Cylons began to make more use of their raiders in attacking capital ships, which weaved through the defences and struck like a pack of wolves taking down a bear. So a new type of vessel was created; the Battlestar which was covered with defensive weapons and the ability to launch large numbers of fighters. Dreadnaughts quickly became obsolete and despite upgrades like the adding of more point defence weaponry and two squadrons of Vipers they were unable to keep up. A battleship was overtaken by an aircraft carrier

The _Achilles_ was even before the fall of the colonies the last Dreadnaught still in service, with serious overhauls and upgrades she had remained in service longer than any other vessel even _Galactica_. She was to have been made into a museum above Picon, but the fall had put those plans to waste

The third ship in the formation was a very different kind of vessel to the _Vulcan_ and _Achilles_. Named the _Ulysses_ she was a Guided Missile Cruiser with reconnaissance abilities. Equipped with long range extra powerful missiles and fitted with stealth technology, a hull made of a special alloy which allowed limited combat worthiness and made it very difficult to see on Dradis but some sets could see the small indication of the vessel. But with it's hull it had energy field projectors in concealed and extra armoured places on the hull which when activated completely hid the ship from Dradis and masked any emission's the ship might be making rendering it unseeable to near all scanning equipment.

This new type of vessel was meant to be the eyes and fire support of a fleet in any future conflict. _Ulysses_ was the prototype and equipped with a number of stealthstar fighters to complement her limited number of conventional vipers.

All three ships had been on a long range reconnaissance mission out into the Virteron Cluster at the time of the attack looking for a potential base to use for future expansion of the 12 Colonies at the time of the attack. Returning to find the colonies in ruins they had started to plan counter strikes against the Cylons which was how they had found themselves in this predicament, they had underestimated the enemy numbers and caught in a trap.

As the Cylons kept attacking the damaged warships missiles from outside the battlefield streaked in slamming into the Baseship that was nearest to them

* * *

Seth stood on the CIC watching the Dradis as the _Telmaya_ jumped into the fight, _Rycon_ hanging back to protect the fleet

"This is a nuclear weapons order, load nuclear warheads into missile tubes 3 and 4" Seth said into the phone on the central console to weapons control

"Lock missiles onto Baseship nearest to our relative position" Seth ordered calmly and the weapons officer on the deck

"Ai sir" the young man who was rescued from _Columbia's_ pontoon replied

"Baseship one is moving to intercept" Kendra reported

"Fire when ready" Seth ordered

* * *

Telmaya launched two missiles which slam into the Baseship's centre column which was consumed in a brilliant flash of light which blew the starfish shaped vessel in half

The distraction allowed Achilles to use her main battery to blast a pylon off another one of the baseships which jumped away as did the third Baseship, realising that they were outgunned

* * *

A half an hour later the jump drive on _Ulysses_ was repaired enough for them to all jump back to the fleet, where on the _Telmaya_ the commanders met

There was Commander Erickson of the Vulcan with his XO Colonel Russell O'Donnell

Colonel Paula Yates and Major Severin Marino of the _Achilles_

Major Abby Brant of the _Ulysses_ with Major Daryl Yantos

Commander Seth Trakiss and Colonel Kendra Shaw of _Telmaya_

Colonel Ishii and her new XO Major Palin of the _Rycon_

And finally there was the chairman of the newly named Colonial Assembly, Hall Forrest

"Well I'm glad to meet you commander" Erickson said Seth once they had taken their seats accepting Seth's position as a battlefield promotion and perfectly valid "We were worried that we were the only survivors"

"The feeling is mutual Commander Erickson; perhaps we should discuss our logs later. But I believe you wanted to discuss something else?" Seth said sticking to the point

"Yes we were attempting a rescue operation we were set upon by those three baseships"

"Rescuing who?" Colonel Ishii asked

"Twenty thousand civilians being held in a Cylon Prison Camp" Erickson's XO Russell said

The room was shocked into silence, Seth recovered first and lent forward

"Tell us more"

* * *

Meanwhile on one of the Baseships that had fled the earlier battle earlier, a Model 1 sneered

"Once the pieces are in place, you wait for your opponent to make his mistake" he said cryptically

_

* * *

_

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	14. Chapter 14

_I do not own Battlestar Galactica _

**Chapter 14 – Trap is Strung **

The military had all agreed to the rescue operation and a plan had been devised, _Telmaya_ would get in close to the planet to draw the attention of the planet's defenders while using its EMP Cannon to give the landing ground forces some assistance by firing on the Cylon compound to dehabilitate the centurions. The ground forces would FTL jump into the upper atmosphere and land, then they would get the civilians into the ships impounded near the prison complex.

While the largest warship in the fleet was doing this the others would take on the 4 baseships defending the planet and Vipers would launch to intercept Raiders and support ground forces

As the different fleet leaders left Seth stood looking over the reconnaissance information and he called out

"Colonel Shaw, Colonel Ishii a moment please" and the two female officers stopped walking towards the door and came to his side

"Twenty thousand civilians, with the means to evacuate them nearby" he said as the two women looked at the charts and maps

"Lucky" Ishii said while she seemed to get what he was getting at by the sort of very serious tone of her

"Trap" Kendra said

"Trap" Seth said confirming that he thought the same

"Why don't they see it?" Ishii asked

"They don't want to; so many of out kind to save blinds them to the obvious especially now that the Cylons will know that we're coming after the battle earlier" Seth said and silence gripped the trio of officers

"So are we going to help them?" Kendra asked and Seth nodded

"Why if we know its a trap?" Ishii asked, Seth turned to face her

"Because given there are now so few of us we need the numbers, but we are not going blind. If the mission looks like its going south worse than anticipated we abort" he told his two highest officers

"And the civilians on the planet?" Ishii asked

Seth nodded "If we can by all means but we have to think about the fleet"

The solemn attitude fell upon the three considering that they might not able to rescue the civilians on the planet surface

* * *

The time eventually came for the operation to begin, all the pilots were waiting in their vipers and raptors, ordinance was locked and loaded, all crews were at their combat stations and the civilian fleet took refuge inside an asteroid belt at low power to confuse Cylon dradis

But there was a last minute crew rooster change, the _Vulcan's_ chief engineer was still unconscious in the ship's medical bay so Major Sheba Cain was temporarily filling in

Then it was time for battle and _Telmaya_ jumped away to begin stage one

* * *

The Cylon Baseships around the planet were moving in a diamond formation around the planet, so if a ship approached from a distance or jumped in between two of the ships then the ships could easily converge on the target

_Telmaya_ did something however that was near completely unexpected, due to her Cylon FTL upgrades she managed to jump right close into the upper atmosphere

In the CIC the ship shook as the air currents battered the ship, everyone was clinging to their stations

Seth and Kendra braced themselves against the center console and Seth ordered

"Target the compound, fire the cannon"

"Aye sir" the tactical officer said

* * *

The front of _Telmaya_ started to glow a bright blue and then a huge blast of blue light erupted from the same area, it struck the Cylon compound, shutting the centurions down and waking the prisoners as they heard the roar of the mighty ships engines as she passed over head before vanishing in a flash of light

* * *

The mighty ship then reappeared in orbit of planet, vipers suddenly started to emerge from the pontoons on the side of the ship as the baseships closed in

One of the pilots who was the first out was Captain Serina otherwise known as Siren

Then the other colonial military vessels jumped in, the marines into the planet's atmosphere and the big military ships jumped in

Only for a another group of flashes appear behind them

* * *

On the _Telmaya_ CIC everyone looked in horror as a new group of unfriendly contacts appeared on the dradis

"How many?" Seth asked in a voice without emotion Amelia

She looked at her console and said in a solemn tone "Eleven Baseships"

Seth gritted his teeth, five on eleven this was going to be a very interesting fight

_

* * *

_

_Till next time_

_Next time the real fight begins and not everyone will be coming home _


	15. Chapter 15

_I do not own Battlestar Galactica_

**Chapter 15 – Victory**

The Baseships immediately started to fire missiles into the large Colonial Warships who shuddered under the impact and quickly moved into combat maneuvers

Vipers scrambled from their carriers, rushing to engage to Raiders which came screaming down from the other direction. The two forces slammed into each and explosions lit up the battlefield as small craft exploded and began their dogfights

_Battlestar Vulcan_was struck by a nuclear warhead and on her CIC, Commander Erickson was thrown threw a glass tactical display and came crashing to the floor, Colonel O'Donnell was also thrown slamming his head into the center console

Sheba Cain was in engineering when she was called to the CIC, frustrated at being called away at such a crucial time but her heart leapt to her mouth when she saw why she had been called

Colonel O'Donnell was lying on the deck, blood pooling from a wound on his head and Commander Erickson was lying on the deck, his body was punctured with glass and his eyes open but no longer filled with anything, just emptiness

Out in space, the _Achilles _fired its main battery into the centre column of a baseship and its high powered warheads slammed and the explosion ripped the Cylon warship apart while the _Ulysses_ managed to destroy another with a nuclear strike.

The other ships deployed into an organised combat formation and the disorganised chaos became a full blown battle

* * *

As the warships fought in orbit of the planet, Raptors and dropships jumped in and sped towards the surface accompanied by some Vipers as the rest remained in orbit to help their motherships fight off the Cylon onslaught

The Colonial Ships descended upon the prison camp and the captive humans looked up at the sky as did the Cylons on guard both organic and machine alike. A missile was fired by a Raptor and hit the control tower which exploded sending the cylons into chaos as the troops landed and spilled out of the ships, engaging the centurions in a fury of gunfire as they secured both the slave tents and captured vessels that had brought the slaves to this planet

* * *

The _Battlestar Vulcan's _drive units suddenly burned at full intensity and the ship picked up speed, and flew close to a baseship which had no time to move as _Vulcan _unloaded its main batteries into the ship at point blank range, shredding the baseship and the surrounding Raiders to pieces

Sheba Cain stood next to the center console and watched the Dradis display and ordered the helm officer

"Put some distance between us and next closest Baseship and tactical load a nuclear warhead into missile tube 4" Sheba ordered first to the navigator and then to the tactical officer who both immediately followed her orders

Once they were far enough away a single projectile burst free of the ship's missile tubes and slammed into the baseship which was sheared in to pieces by the blinding light of the explosion

* * *

Meanwhile a heavy raider carrying boarding centurions had assaulted its way into _Telmaya's_ hanger bay and its metal occupants spilled out and gunfire spread all around as they managed to overrun the marine barricades and the fighting moved into the corridors

Selena sat on her bunk in her cell as the sounds of battle echoed around her, she couldn't help but wonder who was winning but her focus was drawn to the fact that the sounds of gunfire seemed to be getting closer

A marine came through the door and was immediately gutted by gun fire and falling to the floor bleeding but still alive and over him loomed an shadow. The Cylon Centurion walked over the marine and its single red eye locked with her own

"Release me" Selena ordered and the Centurion complied, shooting the cell door open and Selena walked out but her face immediately met the fallen marine whose labored breathing was shallow and rapid, she was only 18 years old, a pretty thing with hair the color of burning copper and enchanting soft brown eyes but they were filled with fear as the metal killing machine towered over her. Selena knew the girl, she was part of the regular detail assigned to the bridge and her name was Catherine or Cat for short and one of the few who bothered to talk to her and a mutual friendship had developed

Selena crouched down and picked up Catherine's side arm that had fallen from its holster and the human girls eyes widened with terror

What happened next surprised Selena herself nevermind the Centurion or Catherine and would change the curse of her life forever. Selena whipped the pistol suddenly whipped up, aiming right at the glowing eye of the Centurion and fired two rounds straight through the weak spot into its CPU, which deactivated the robot straight away

Catherine looked relieved and mouthed "Thank you" and Selena smiled before she pulled a grenade off Catherine's belt and peered out of the door to see five centurions coming up the corridor, so she pulled out the pin and threw the explosive in the direction of the robot foot soldiers and ducked back behind the door, the explosion ripping the centurions apart

She then went about treating Catherine's wounds

* * *

Serina out in space was just shooting down her 15th kill that day when she saw ships lumbering into space from the surface and came under fire from an orbiting Baseship as they tried to jump away. One large liner was unlucky as missiles struck the large vessel sending it plummeting to the surface of the planet as it fell into its flaming wreck was pulled down by the planet's gravity

Professional detachment rigidly took possession of her mind swiftly after rage and she carried on hunting raiders

* * *

Tyber was heralding people onto the last remaining transports, as his communication officer kept him informed of how the operation was going, despite the ambush in space the tide of battle had turned in favor of the Colonial forces and nearly all of the civilian transports had escaped

A young boy fell as a dark skinned man knocked him to the ground as he scrambled to get to the transport, Tyber went to pick the boy up and failed to notice the Centurion coming from around the corner of an adjacent tent. The Centurion fired and bullets impaled themselves into his body, pain gripped his body as he fell to the ground, a few seconds he looked up at the sky before his eyes closed

As the last transports jumped away from the planet all fighters flew towards the nearest colonial carriers and started emergency combat landings so as to not be left behind and once the fighters were on board the big carriers jumped away

* * *

The Life stations across the fleet were buzzing with activity as the sick and wounded were treated and those who could not be healed, made as comfortable as possible

Tyber was one of the former, the civilians had picked him up and carried him to the transport, the medics had done their job and his internal bleeding was now corrected, right now to stop people pestering him about how he was feeling when they knew all to well he was pretending to sleep

"You better open those eyes soldier; I know when a guy is faking" a voice said to him and an unconscious but small smile came to Tyber's face, he opened his eyes to see Commander Trakiss looking down at him with a small grin of his own

"The operation went as planned sir?" Tyber inquired to his CO who nodded

"With the exception of the ambush the toasters sprung but we managed to fight our way out and still got the people off that rock. Even better the people on the planet pointed out a few cylons who got aboard the transports" Seth told him

Tyber asked "How many?"

"Four, but 3 different models altogether, we're questioning them now" Seth told him taking the seat at his bedside

"Doubt we'll get anything out of them" Tyber told him and Seth nodded in agreement and confessed something to his top marine

"When I signed up for the academy I had two goals, the first was to command my own ship, the second to raise a family. Now I find myself responsible for about fifty-five thousand people and command of five military ships. The Assembly is telling me to assume the rank of Admiral to formalise my position as commanding officer of more than one ship"

Tyber understood "And you don't want to be an Admiral, you were happy with reaching your first goal and working with Colonel Shaw on the second" Tyber said with a teasing smile

It didn't faze Seth at all who said back in a similar teasing tone "Spot on, the same reason why I relaxed the fraternization regs, we need to replenish our numbers and if I'm not mistaken you've been getting close to the good Doctor Forego" and at that the two young men stayed silent in a moment of contemplation of their partners

* * *

Selena was standing in Seth's office under the watchful eye of a marine and for once not handcuffed, the blond woman looked over when the door open and Seth and Kendra walked in

Seth gestured towards the seat in front of his desk as he went to sit in his own chair and Kendra remained standing at his side, she felt nervous as to why he might have called her here and in that chair behind the desk he looked just as imposing as a man twice his age

"You saved some of my crew today" he simply stated "I own you their lives and you turned against your own people" and he leaned back in his chair and arched his elbows on the chair's arm rests and intertwined his fingers "My thanks seem ill fitting so maybe its time we give you something to do"

She was confused "To do?" she asked, trying to imagine what job they would trust her with

"As this ship was made to serve the academy we have a library of both books and electronic documents on board but its been mostly abandoned since the all this started. Hundreds of books and documents that need to be looked after and there's no-one in my crew who has either the time or the desire for the job, so would you be willing to become the ship's librarian?" Seth asked her

She was stunned, she'd imagined some menial cleaning job or something like that, not to be charged with preserving and caring for knowledge. But then suspicion kicked in

"Conditions?" she asked

Seth replied "No real conditions, you will be granted secure quarters and spent six hours in the library everyday. You will be able to take out a few books a day back to your quarters. Food will be delivered to your quarters at certain times in the day, there'll be a marine stationed with you at all times when out of your quarters but that is more for the crew's state of mind than concerns about you causing trouble. The library is a separate hub to the rest of the ship so there's no chance of accessing the ship's other computers, now will you take the job?" giving nothing away as to his feelings with an emotionless tone and impassive face

Selena knew this was too good an opportunity to pass up and slowly she nodded

"Good choice" Colonel Shaw told her and the young Caprican woman turned to the marine "Please escort Miss Selena to her quarters" and the marine saluted and quietly led the unresisting Cylon to her new home

Seth leaned back in his chair but could not relax and Kendra told him something that in three words would change both their lives again

"Seth, I'm pregnant" and Seth's face froze in shock

* * *

Once the new ships and people were integrated into the fleet, they gathered to mourn the dead

On the hanger deck, what bodies that had been recovered from both the planet, death on the Battlestars and pilots in the vipers were all laid out and the area was decorated with the flags of all twelve colonies, the priest they'd found was singing the hymn and carried out the service

The mood in the bay was somber and Seth walked forward and turned to face the crowd, looking at the faces who stared back at him, his own crew along with Hal Forrest and the members of the Civilian Assembly, Colonel Ishii with her officers and from the other ships in the fleet including the new commanding officer of the Vulcan, Colonel O'Donnell. Seth had offered it to Sheba but she had decided to return to her duties on _Telmaya._ They all diverted their attention straight to him

"Ladies and Gentlemen of the Colonial Fleet we now stand ready to take a leap into the unknown space that lies ahead. Our victory over the Cylons may have cost us some of our brothers and sisters but it has gifted us with many new people to our ranks and that is their legacy, that those new people will have the chance to live and we now must find a new home from where we can rebuild. I have no doubt that we will make it and that one day we will defeat the Cylons once and for all. So say we all" Seth said in a rousing speech.

The assembled people on the deck replied with an strong and loud "So say we all" and Seth smiled and Kendra caught his eye her hand instinctively going to cover her abdomen

* * *

_Thank you those who have been patient, real life is really making hard to find both time and energy to write_

_Please let me know what you think_


	16. Chapter 16

_I do not own Battlestar Galactica _

_A short chapter is all I seem able to write at the moment, Sorry._

_Italics – Radio Speech_

**Chapter 16 – Chance Meeting**

Starbuck was on patrol, Kat was her wingman for this mission. The toasters were quiet for the moment and it was like drowning in nothing she was so bored. The fleet was cruising along a short way off now with the heavily armoured bulk of the _Battlestar Colossus_ at its rear, since the leviathan had returned from the grave the Cylons had been giving _Galactica's_ fleet a wide berth. The Cylon suicide bomber may have taken out Colossus's Commander but the XO Colonel Miranda Colchester had taken over and accepted Commander Adama's authority as commanding officer

Kat's voice sounded on her comm system _"Starbuck are you as bored as I am?"_

Starbuck smiled, the nugget she'd trained had certainly come a long way not she would ever tell her that it'd ruin her image

"_How about a song then"_ Starbuck dared Kat over the comm system

"_How about 99 Bottles of Ambrosia"_ Kat asked

"_Damn it Kat, you're taking me back"_ Starbuck laughed remembering her own experience with the strong alcohol

A new voice broke out of the comm system; it belonged to Dee, the Communication Officer of the _Battlestar Galactica_

"_Starbuck this is Galactica, we're receiving signals from behind a broken moon at your two o'clock; we need you to investigate, do your copy?" _

"_Galactica this is Starbuck, we copy moving to investigate"_ she said and she accelerated and altered her course to check out the mystery signals, Kat kept pace with her and soon they reached to _broken moon_

The light from the distant sun flashed in their eyes as they cleared the large mass of rock and the sight that greeted Starbuck rendered her for the first time perhaps in her life, speechless

"_Starbuck, Galactica report, what do you see?"_ Dee's voice sounded over the comm system, it was repeated a couple of times but Starbuck shook herself out of her surprise; Kat was doing the same thing over in her viper

"_Looks like a fleet of colonial ships led by three Battlestars, about the size of our fleet I think"_ Starbuck reported

"_Starbuck please repeat"_ This time the voice was low and gravely, definitely not Dee's

"_Galactica Actual this is Starbuck I repeat a fleet of about seventy civilian ships with about three battlestars leading, I think I can see the Achilles in there as well"_ Starbuck told her Commanding officer William Adama

A voice broke over the communication system; the voice was young and feminine but belonged to neither the two pilots nor _Galactica's_ staff

"_This is the Battlestar Telmaya to unknown vessels, identify yourselves or you will be fired upon" _

Colonel Tigh looked his best friend Commander Adama in the eye and said in his confusion "There's wasn't a _Battlestar Telmaya_ in the fleet. This has got to be some kind of trick"

While he was as confused as his XO Adama felt something in his gut tell him that this wasn't a trick "I'm not so sure" he said and picked up the receiver on the centre column and turned to Dee "Put me on the line" he order and the young woman went to work and nodded when it was done

"_This is Galactica Actual, there is no record of a Battlestar Telmaya, send official colonial recognition codes or you will be fired upon" _

There was a silence for a moment but then Dee received a data transmission "I've received recognition codes sir, they're authentic" she said looking at her CO with hope in her eyes as was many around him

The _Telmaya_ CIC was much in the same way as the Galactica's was, people with eyes full hope but the more war weary members of the crew like Commander Trakiss and Colonel Cain who had taken over from Colonel Shaw when the pregnant officer had gone on maternity leave two weeks prior after entering her seventh month, kept their guard up

Seth picked up the receiver from the centre console and spoke into it

"Galactica Actual this is Telmaya Actual, requesting communication"

There was a moment of silence before the speaker sounded _"Telmaya Actual this is Galactica Actual, your ship does not conform to any known existing Battlestar on our registry" _

Seth continued to speak "Galactica Actual that is because Telmaya isn't this ships original name, I will explain face to face. Your call Commander"

And everyone waited to hear Adama's response


	17. Chapter 17

_I do not own Battlestar Galactica_

**Chapter 17 – Face to Face**

A Raptor accompanied by three Mark 8 Vipers glided from the hanger of the _Telmaya_ and flew gracefully towards the loose formation of ships that the aforementioned Battlestar was facing.

The small formation of small ships approached another large warship this one named _Galactica_, they slowly entered the large hanger bay on the ship's port side. Inside the _Galactica_, the ship's crew was buzzing with anticipation, the arrival of another fleet about the size of their own with new warships to help relieve the burden placed on _Galactica_ and _Colossus_ to defend the fleet. The possibility of loved ones being amongst their numbers, all these thoughts running through their heads as they rushed through the corridors to meet the Commander of the new Battlestar who was coming aboard to meet their own commanding officer

Commander Adama, accompanied by Colonel Tigh and President Roslin calmly walked through the corridors surrounded by a marine squad watching the disciplined crew rush about like frenzied children. Colonel Tigh barked out for everyone to calm down but his command was ignored by those within its range, Laura Roslin was smiling as she saw the smiles on their faces and optimism lightened her heart after weeks of seeing nothing but gloom and depression.

Commander Adama however paid little attention to the events occurring around him as his thoughts were focused on what potential issues the new arrivals could bring. First a Battlestar that no-one had ever heard of and if they'd be willing to work with them chiefly.

All these thoughts were put aside though as Captain Kelly over the PA system announced that the raptor baring the officers from _Telmaya_ were arriving. The crew on the flight deck all lined up in formation to accept them. President Roslin stood at the Commander's side and while still smiling herself took notice of his serious expression

"Commander I would have thought you'd be happier about this. Another fleet, more supplies, and more warships to protect us why are you so stone faced?" she asked him

He turned to her and explained "The ship leading the new fleet is not on any list of known Battlestars and we have no idea if they will or are able to help us and what they will want from us. I think it best till I have answers that we keep our guard up" Roslin sobered at what he'd said but remained smiling as she clung to optimism

The Raptor was lowered into the hanger on the lift and settled into place. The crew stood at attention at Colonel Tigh's instruction as the hatch on the raptor opened to allow its passengers to disembark. First out were the marines, the crew were shocked at their age as most of them couldn't be older than eighteen and that shock grew greater as the pilot stepped out wearing the rank of captain and was no older than the marines as was the young woman who followed the captain baring the rank of colonel, but as they waited for the commanding officer who would surely be older than his crew.

Well he was older but only a couple of years, he was tall and strongly built, standing at nearly six foot tall and his dark hair cut short. He stood tall and proud and despite his age looked every bit the Commander that his officer pins showed him to be. He stood looking at the faces of the assembled crew of the ship he was standing on and slowly with precise steps stepped off the raptor and onto the deck. He walked over to Commander Adama who didn't let his face show any surprise at the age of his counterpart.

Neither man saluted the other; the first to salute would be seen as the subordinate to the other, Trakiss merely held out his hand

"Commander Adama" he said with no emotion

Adama took his hand and shook it; both men grasping each other's hand firmly to show no weakness "Commander Trakiss" who let a small grin appear on his face

"Then let ours fleets come together in joy as the reunification of our people begins" he said loudly so the assembled crew could and a cheer rose at the comment.

**BSGBSGBSGBSGBSGBSGBSG**

After that the crew had stood down and started to interact with their counterparts from _Telmaya_, Adama, Trakiss and Roslin however had decided to go to talk in private in Commander Adama's quarters over a bottle of Ambrosia. The Commander looked questioningly at Trakiss who replied with a withering stare and said

"I can take a drink Commander" so Adama poured him a glass and Trakiss took a sip without reacting

"Well Commander if perhaps you could tell us how someone younger than the Commander's own son could rise to control not one but three battlestars?" Roslin asked, Seth found her comment patronising and decided to respond in kind

"Perhaps I'll explain after you explain how a secretary in charge of education rose to become President?" Seth asked her in the same patronising tone. She looked taken aback and answered after she had regained her composure

"I was the last person alive after the Cylons attacked" she said

"Well then, now you've explained so will I. During the fall of the colonies we were hit early by the Cylons, fires' burning everywhere people dying it was just chaos. But we managed to escape by making a blind jump" Seth said. Adama speculated

"That's taking a risk" and Seth nodded

"I know but there was no time to set co-ordinates and Raiders were bearing down on us. We hid on the outskirts of the system while he undertook repairs. We lost all our officers in the Cylon attack but before he died the Commodore Willis gave me command and promoted me to Commander. I've been in charge ever since, I gathered as many civilians ships as I could as well as a few military ones and then left the systems hoping to find a new home world"

"Wait a minute, Commodore Willis? He was the Head of the Colonial Military Academy and the only ship he commanded was _Aristotle_. The Academy's training ship" Adama exclaimed at the name

"That's right. _Telmaya_ used to be _Aristotle_; we changed the name after the attack to suit her new role. We even managed to refit her with some help from the civilians using parts we were carrying at the time to make her a full battlestar" Seth told him. Adama felt respect for this young man and also the rest of the former cadets on that ship. They'd managed so much when they weren't even fully trained.

"Well I must say well done Commander" Adama told his opposite, making sure to refer to him as an equal so to not alienate him "You and your crew have come a long way"

"As have yours Commander, although I am puzzled about _Colossus_. Wasn't that ship destroyed?" Seth asked him referring to the battlestar that had not too long ago emerged from a portal they had yet to classify

"That's a long story; perhaps we should exchange logs sometime" Adama told him and Seth nodded

"Well Commander Trakiss perhaps I could ask you the disposition of the civilians in your fleet? I was hoping we could exchange supplies" Roslin said drawing the attention of the two men back to her

"If you want to exchange supplies you'll have to make an appeal to the civilian assembly" Seth told her

Roslin asked "What is the Civilian Assembly?"

"It's a congress of elected representatives from each ship in the fleet who are co-ordinated by an elected chairperson. Any civilian affair is handled by them, they're even operating a small police force" Seth told her

"Well surly they'll accept my position as president under the articles of colonisation" Roslin said with reassurance but Seth raised an eyebrow at the comment

"They're a legitimate government formed with our current situation in mind. I doubt they'' just drop everything we've built for you" Seth said with an edge of threat in his voice. He would of course let the civilians decide but he doubted they would simply just let Roslin take over

"Well we'll discuss that another time" Adama interrupted, keen to stop a brewing confrontation before it started. The fleet had had enough of that over what had had happened over Kobol and him dismantling the Civilian Government not to long ago

**BSG BSG BSG BSG BSG BSG BSG BSG **

Meanwhile on _Colonial One_ a priest called Estella was looking through a very old copy of the writing of Pythia. The pilot of the ship came up to her and asked

"What are you doing?" she didn't look up but did answer

"Looking for a set of writings that I believe foretold what has happened, most books of the writings of Pythia do not include them but this one might" the pilot looked surprised

"What do you mean what's happened?" he asked but she didn't answer this time but found the passages she was looking through and said "There"

"What is it?" he asked

She looked up and said "A set of visions of the future written by Pythia just before her death. They nullify all others even the one of the dying leader" she told him and looked at the ancient script written in the book "Writings that will change everything"

"For better or for worse?" he asked her, not being a religious man before but he had started too since the attack.

"It depends, they are not completely clear but they must be believed and hopefully the cycle of death and exodus will be broken" she told him

"They are called the _Telmaya_ Prophesies" she told him and his eyes widened

**BSG BSG BSG BSGBSGBSG **


	18. Chapter 18

_I do not own Battlestar Galactica _

**Chapter 18 –Reunions and Rumblings**

While the two Commanders and the President had their discussions, on the hanger deck Lieutenant Kara Thrace 'Starbuck' and Captain Lee Adama 'Apollo' were admiring the Mark 8 Vipers that had brought the _Telmaya_ pilots to _Galactica_.

"It's a beauty isn't it" a voice from behind them, they turned to see the young brown haired woman from _Telmaya_ who bore the captain rank pin "You can look but don't touch" she said with a bit teasing voice. She looked quite doe like with a gently rounded face and bright brown eyes, Starbuck couldn't take her seriously. In her mind she wasn't tough enough to be a Viper jock.

"You sure you can handle her?" Starbuck decided to tease, waiting for the outburst of anger that would confirm in her mind that she wasn't mature enough but was disappointed when the younger woman only smiled and continued talking as if she hadn't heard her "She's a great piece of engineering, she's immune to jamming like the Mark 2, she's got improved speed and handling and she's got more firepower than the Mark 7 and _Telmaya's_ got two hundred of them" she smiled and Lee nearly choked

"Two hundred" Lee exclaimed "That's ten full squadrons on just your flagship"

"Actually we only have eight available at one time but we keep the other two squadrons in reserve. Just the standard layout for air groups on _Mercury_ class battlestars" Serina explained "We had the parts for a hundred and eighty in storage when we started and by melting down the old Mark 3's we had and remaking them into new Mark 8 we brought it up to full capacity"

"You can make your own Vipers?" Starbuck asked

"As long as we have the materials yes. We can actually do it faster than other _Mercury_ class ships as we have the improved facilities" Serina told them proudly as Lee and Starbuck and the Deck Chief who had overheard them looked a little jealous. Chief Tyrol dragged Serina away so they could talk about getting new parts for the _Galactica_ and if they would be so kind, new Vipers.

Then a boy dressed as a civilian called out after pushing his way through the crowds

"Starbuck" the indicated pilot and Lee turned around and saw the young boy Boomer had rescued from Caprica who called himself Boxy

"Hey kid, how are you?" asked Starbuck

"Okay missing _Galactica_ though" he said wistfully then he saw the Mark 8 "Is that the new Viper that the new fleet brought?" the young boy asked her and Starbuck gritted her teeth at his enthusiasm over the newer Viper

"Yeah it is but the old ones are still the best ones" she said and she saw the too-young captain Serina coming back. Serina took one look at Boxy and seemed to have forgotten to breathe, before a massive smile broke out on her face and she called out with joy

"Boxy" the aforementioned boy turned to look at whoever had shouted his name and his face brightened immediately

"Serina" he called out and the two of them ran to meet each other and leapt into each other's arms and laughed happily as the taller Serina swung them around as she held her brother tightly in her arms

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

The fleets out together a list of all those within each and give it to the other. There were several great reunions, such as Billy who was swamped by his parents, sister and her children nearly crushing him with a family group hug but he could only laugh as tears of joy rolled down his face. The families of the crew of the Battlestar _Colossus_ were so happy when they discovered that their loved ones had not been killed forty three years ago merely misplaced in space and time by the vortex opened in the Shredder's field that the whole ship was having one huge party.

The fleet was in a state of celebration, in a single day the number of Colonial survivors had risen from 47,853 to 82,765 nearly doubling their numbers. Other pleasant surprises were also in store.

One the hanger deck of _Galactica_, Chief Tyrol and his deck gang were surprised when two carts carrying a load of factory fresh parts were wheeled in and a card left on the top of the pile, Chief Tyrol went over and opened the card and read the message out loud to his knuckledraggers

"To the _Galactica_ deck gang, a little something from us to you. Have fun; from the _Telmaya_ deck gang" and he looked over all the parts they sent and Cally picked up a big turbine and grinned

Meanwhile on the CIC a group of young officers led by Lieutenant Cartwright entered and approached Lieutenant Gaeta and presented him with cases containing computer storage drives and charts on paper

"What's this?" Gaeta asked

"These are navigational updates, software patches and system upgrades" she told him "We know you had to wipe your computers so here is the _Telmaya's_ complete digital library, everything from the scrolls of Pythia to the Articles of Colonisation" she told him and Gaeta looked over what he was being given to install on _Galactica_.

"Is there any porn in there?" Gaeta asked and Amelia gave him a withering stare

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX**

Commander Adama had told his people to gather as much information as they could about the new fleet as they could; when they were done they gathered in his quarters to discuss what they'd found out.

"Well, what have we got?" Commander Adama asked and the assembled group which included Laura Roslin and her assistant Billy.

"Well we know that the _Telmaya_ is a fully equipped fighting machine that could run us down like dogs on a highway if it got to a shooting war" Tigh said as he was nursing a glass of ambrosia "I spoke with their XO about caps around the fleet"

_Flashback…_

_Colonel Tigh was sitting in a storage room on Galactica's flight deck discussing joint caps around the combined fleets with Colonel Sheba Cain_

"_So what's Trakiss like?" Tigh asked casually trying to start a conversation _

"_Officer's discretion?" Sheba asked _

"_Of course" Tigh said hoping to learn something about the young crew of Telmaya, but still trying to get over the fact that his opposite was so young. _

"_He's strong, when he's chosen a course of action he'll stick with it to the end. Every order he gives has a purpose and he's constantly thinking about protecting the fleet" Sheba told him and Tigh almost smiled_

"_What's Adama like?" Sheba asked _

_Tigh answered "The exact same, wouldn't have made it this far without him" and Sheba nodded giving a small smile and asked a business question _

"_How many squadrons have you got?" she asked so they could divide the load evenly_

"_We can field two full squadrons" Tigh told her "Colossus can field three more" and Sheba's smile faded and she massaged her temple_

"_That means were going to have to take the major of the work" she said and Tigh asked "How many squadrons do you have?" _

"_Telmaya's got ten and the Rycon and Vulcan can give four more each. Achilles can hold two and Ulysses can field one" Sheba told him and it made him want to get a drink._

"_You've got four hundred and twenty vipers" he asked exasperated and Sheba looked up at him thinking nothing of it _

"_Yeah, Telmaya can build her own Vipers if the materials are available and most of the ships still had the majority of their air wings intact" Sheba told him "Plus we have simulators to help train new pilots quicker, if we can find the materials we can build some new vipers and train some new pilots for you if you like" _

_Tigh's head was spinning and it had nothing to do with drink but he had to ask "What about the big ships themselves?" _

_Flashblack ends…_

"In short she told me that all their ships were in full working order and well manned" Tigh told them

"That's a heck of a lot of fighters and firepower at their disposal" Lee said and he reported what he'd learned from the pilots he'd talked too.

"The crews of the military ships are loyal to Trakiss, they'll side with him over us" Lee told them all "apparently they don't like to trust outsiders because of the last few experiences they've had with senior officers"

"What do mean previous experiences?" Lieutenant Gaeta asked

"Well the first time they met a senior officer was when they ran into the _Rycon_, he turned out to be Cylon who tried to start a shooting war between _Telmaya_ and _Rycon_. The second time, they were led into a Cylon trap, they barely got out alive and then there the rumours they've heard about Admiral Cain" Lee told them

"Rumours about Admiral Cain, what's that got to do with us?" Starbuck asked

"Apparently the _Pegasus_ survived the fall of the Colonies and has been striking Cylon targets and stripping any Colonial survivors they find" Lee told them and Laura was shocked

"You mean…" she started to say

"They took whatever they wanted and then left the civilians to die" Lee told her and they all looked shocked

"Well that could be a problem if we run into _Pegasus_" Commander Adama said but knowing the odds of that were incredibly remote

"Maybe but I think it's safe to assume that Trakiss is not going to accept you as a senior officer" Tigh told his CO and long-time friend "Regulations might but he and his people won't"

"Well maybe you two could compromise, figure out a plan to protect the fleet together" Laura suggested

"Once Trakiss and I have exchanged logs I'll look into it. Reading his logs will help me put him in context, and he'll be doing the same thing to put me into context" Adama said and then Roslin brought up something that was bothering her

"I've noticed that _Telmaya's_ been supplying _Galactica_" Laura said and Adama nodded

"She's been resupplying _Galactica_ from her own Military reserve" Adama told her, remembering the happy looks on Chief Tyrol and Lieutenant Gaeta when they'd received the supplies

"Which I fully support but when are those supplies going to get to the rest of the fleet?" Roslin asked "I've got ships on half rations and mechanical failures across the fleet but so far _Galactica_ is getting its needs met"

"What we've been receiving is purely military equipment" Chief Tyrol told her "We've managed to get ten vipers back in working order and restore our computers too"

"I believe Trakiss said that if you wanted to get supplies you'd have to make an appeal to the civilian authority" Adama reminded her and she almost sighed in frustration as she rubbed the bridge of her nose

"They said I can meet with them tomorrow but they refuse to recognise me as the President of the Colonies" Laura said annoyed

"Be careful Madam President, push them too hard and they might deny you the supplies out of anger" Billy told her "They are a fully functioning civilian government with its own policies, rationing systems, a small non-military police force and even a civilian based engineering corps" they all looked at him

"Where did you get all that Billy?" Laura asked

"My father, he was in their fleet and is now the head of the engineer corps, doing maintenance across their fleet" Billy told them but before anyone could ask him another question there was a knock on the hatch door.

Commander Adama got up and opened the hatch only to be taken aback when he saw who it was that was knocking. For a moment he saw a woman with blond hair and he nearly exclaimed Carolanne. But his better sense returned to him swiftly and he saw a young lieutenant who could be older than twenty. She was just like Carolanne in her facial features and her build despite being younger in age, but there were differences that made it even more disconcerting. Her hair was jet black, just like his had been and Lee's was. But also there were her eyes; they were the same shade of piercing blue that both he and his son had. He shook himself out of his observations and noticing the _Telmaya_ insignia on her uniform asked

"Can I help you Lieutenant?" she gave a slight smile and said

"I have Commander Trakiss's logs as you requested sir" the young officer said and the cart behind her with some boxes piled on it "And to pick up the copies of your logs" she said reminding him this was an exchange rather than just one sided

"Yes come in" he said as stepped aside to let the lieutenant in who wheeled the cart in with the boxes. The other people in the room looked up to see who was coming in and Lee and Starbuck's jaws almost dropped when they saw the younger woman and Tigh's eyes widened. They could see what they recognised as Adama traits in the young officer and the target of their stares quickly made her uncomfortable.

"Will all due respect will you please stop staring?" she said firmly as she put the carts with Trakiss's logs next to Adama's desk and picked up the cart that was loaded with Adama's own logs.

Everyone realised what they were doing and averted their eyes somewhat, but Commander Adama had to ask her some questions

"What's your name lieutenant?" and she turned to face him frowning slightly

"Lieutenant Amelia Cartwright sir" she told him respectfully and before she could go back to collecting the logs he asked her another question

"Where are you from Lieutenant Cartwright?" he asked and her frown intensified but keen to leave she answered his question hoping to end his questions

"An orphanage on Caprica Commander Adama" she told him and while he recognised that she didn't want to answer any more questions Lee then asked one of his own as both father and son's suspicions mounted

"How old are you?" and Amelia looked at him with a glare forgetting that he was a captain and she was only a lieutenant

"Not that it's any business of yours but I'm nineteen years old" she snapped and before anyone else could ask her any more questions she grabbed the cart baring Adama's logs and wheeled it out the open door closing it behind her. There was silence for a moment before Tigh said

"What the hell?"

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**


	19. Chapter 19

_I do not own Battlestar Galactica _

**Chapter 19 – Discoveries**

On the Battlestar _Colossus_, the new commanding officer Colonel Miranda Colchester was sitting in her new cabin, the former cabin of her late commanding officer Paul Jeffs. Paul had been an avid sports fan and Caprica Buccaneers memorabilia had been stuffed into every square millimetre of the large personal quarters. It had removed and placed into storage till they could decide what to do with it, Miranda however had a different hobby she liked to paint. She had a large stash of painting supplies on-board from before their strange trip through time and had made sure to get as much from the fleet as she could by trading some of the Commander's old memorabilia before putting the rest into storage.

Her family had just arrived in the fleet yesterday. She looked at her two kid brothers who were now both in the fifties and older than her by twenty years whereas she could remember them as ten year old nuggets who used to play viper pilots with their much older sister like it was yesterday. They each had families of their own now, so she got to meet her sisters in law and her many nieces and nephews. Both her parents were long dead and she struggled to cope with the changes that had happened. She should be in her seventies now; she should have had a family of her own and spent the years growing old with them. She put her head in her hands as she felt her head hurt and her eyes starting to well up with tears. If Paul had been here he would have joked with her about it, made her laugh so she didn't feel so overwhelmed but with him gone she didn't have anyone to turn too.

She was disturbed from her distress by a signal from the phone on her desk and she wiped her eyes before picking up the phone and answering "Colonel Colchester" as formally as she could still not comfortable with being as informal with her crew as Paul had been.

"Sorry sir but Commander Trakiss is requesting an audience with you later today. What should I tell him?" Lieutenant Alyssa Okinawa said and Miranda felt surprise before apprehension set in as to why he was being so covert. Miranda thought for a moment before saying

"Tell him he can come aboard at 16 hundred hours and not to be late" she told her Tactical Officer, meaning to make a statement with Trakiss that whatever he had to say, it had better be good and not to waste her time.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

"The hair, the eyes, hell Dad she looks just like us and mom" Lee said managed to say still in shock forgetting to refer to him as a senior officer for once.

"The only people I've ever seen with those eyes are Adama men" Kara said who was as shocked as Lee

"Me and Carolanne always talked about having a daughter but it never happened and despite what she might have thought I stayed loyal to her all through our marriage and didn't touch another woman for nearly a year after and I definitely used protection" Adama remarked but he couldn't shake the familiarity the young lieutenant had to not only him but his former wife as well.

Saul of course pointed this out "That girl is a dead ringer for your ex-wife Bill. You sure you didn't have any other kids?" he said sarcastically

Adama silenced him with a glare but then a thought leapt into his mind

"Wait a minute, wait a minute" he said massaging his temples as the enormity of it sank in "I slept with Carolanne a couple of months before we divorced, I forgot to use protection. And a couple of months later I took Lee and Zak on that vacation to Picon" he said

"Yeah they had that viral outbreak so the planet was quarantined, we were stuck there for six months" Lee said remembering the trip "Mom said she was ill before we left and wanted some time to get better without us there" Lee added as pieces of a puzzle he hadn't known existed started to fall into place in his mind.

"If Carolanne was pregnant she could have had the baby and given it up rather than deal with me about it" Adama said remembering how reluctant the woman had been to have Lee and Zack originally but he had convinced her to keep them. The timing was slim but it was so farfetched that it might just be possible.

"Commander this sounds like a plot from a Caprica Soap opera" Chief Tyrol said as he felt they were getting a bit too wild with this "I mean the chances of this have got to be millions to one against"

"You could have a DNA test done to be sure?" Laura suggested and Lee just shook his head

"What frakking grounds do we have to even ask that when we only just met the girl and if you haven't noticed she's _Telmaya's_ officer"

"How about a physical?" Starbuck suggested and everyone turned to her "I mean ship regulations say that while she's on the _Galactica_ you can demand a physical because she's coming from an outside environment" everyone looked at her in surprise, not so much at the idea, it was a very good one but the fact that Starbuck had suggested it showing for one of those really rare moments that she was actually a highly intelligent and dedicated officer, instead of just a rude and rebellious fighter jock. Saul said while they mulled it over

"If you used that brain of yours all the time Starbuck you would probably outrank Apollo" Commander Adama had to agree with this. As dedicated an officer as Lee was he was perhaps too much by the book, Starbuck providing she toed the line could be one of those officers that could be innovative and quick thinking in any situation and was really only held back in her career at least by her contempt for most senior officers and general insubordination.

Adama reached for his phone and called up first the hanger bay to make sure that the mystery lieutenant didn't leave the ship, and then to Doctor Cottle to tell him to prepare to do a physical exam and while he was at it, covertly take a DNA sample.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Amelia was just loading up the last of the boxes of logs on to the Raptor that was going to take her back to her ship when a young brunette deckhand came up to her and said

"Sorry sir" Cally said "But Commander Adama is ordering that you have a physical before leaving _Galactica_" and Amelia stopped and looked puzzled

"What for? I just had one from Doctor Forego on _Telmaya_ last week and if you haven't noticed Adama isn't my commanding officer" she said indicated her ship patch but Cally and the other deckhands around her fixed her with a hard gaze

"Maybe but on this ship you will follow his orders" Cally said firmly and with a sigh Amelia turned to the pilot of the Raptor and told him

"Take the files back, I'll get another ride back to the ship" and the pilot nodded before Amelia disembarked and was pretty much frogmarched by the deckhands to the infirmary where the gruff Doctor who greeted her told her to strip to her tanks and took a blood sample before starting the regulation tests.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Two hours later, an annoyed Amelia had finished and past the tests with flying colours before mumbling all the way in a not so cheerful tone all the way to the hanger deck where she caught a fresh raptor to _Telmaya_. Commander Adama and Lee waited till she was gone before going to the infirmary and talking to Cottle

"Okay so apart from wasting my time, what was that about?" Cottle asked with his signatory cigarette in his mouth and Bill told him

"I need you to run a DNA test, the lieutenant's against ours" and Cottle looked up with surprise and suspicion on his face

"Anything I should look for in particular?" he asked

"Just do the test" Lee told him as Lee and his father rolled up the sleeves to allow Cottle to take blood samples for the test. He went off to his tiny lab while they waited anxiously in the infirmary which was mercifully empty

"What if she is family dad? What then?" Lee asked but Bill had no clear answer to give him feeling the same turmoil as his son and wondering if this was all a complete coincidence

"I don't know Lee" Bill told him and they grimaced when Cottle re-entered the room with a strange expression on his face that they couldn't read making them more nervous than before

"Well Doc, what did it show?" Bill asked and Cottle looked him straight in the eye

"From your sample there was match between her and you commander on the paternal side, on Captain Adama's side there is a clear match from both paternal and maternal contributors" he said "Basically you are her father and your son is her full blood brother"

The deck plating could have fallen away and left the two of them drifting in space and they probably wouldn't have noticed given how much shock them were in. They had been half hoping that this was a mistake and they could just make themselves feel a little embarrassed before moving on, but this changed everything. They thanked the Doctor before returning to the Commander's cabin to have a stiff drink of ambrosia each.

"What now dad?" Lee asked his head still in a spin

"We figure out a way to tell her and go from there, the move after that will be hers to make" Bill said as he downed the drink and poured another round as his son followed suit

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

The next day, Laura Roslin took a Raptor to _Telmaya_ where a special meeting of the Civilian Assembly had been called. She was put in a seat near the outskirts of the room till they had settled most of their outstanding business and she was impressed at how methodically the elected chairperson Hal Forrest listened to each point before calmly and carefully making a solution and guiding the discussion. He didn't look like any politician she had ever seen. He wore not a suit but rather a set of overalls that despite being clothes for physical labour made him appear tough and made a statement about him, he was a normal hardworking man and many of the representatives in the congress dressed in the same way. Despite never having met them before she felt more at ease with these people than her own quorum and tugged nervously on her suit, feeling that she might be overdressed. Billy who was sitting at her side did the same and he held the notes they had compiled on the condition of their own fleet

"The floor is now open to President Laura Roslin of the _Galactica_ fleet" Hal Forrest called out and as calmly as she could she made her way to the speaker chair to address the representatives who watched her intently making her feel like an animal going to the slaughter. She took her place and spoke as calmly as she could

"Representatives thank you for meeting with me today and may I say again that it is wondrous to see you all" she said with a big smile that was returned by some but others stared at her with blank expressions

"I stand before your today" Laura continued "hoping that we may share our resources to hopefully ease the situations in both our fleets" and the expressions went from blank to distrustful and the smiles faded somewhat

"If you mean to exchange supplies then I would request a copy of fleet's combined inventory and rationing policies" Hal Forrest said interrupting her and a murmur of support began amongst the members of the congress

Laura responded quickly "Yes my assistant has copies for you" she said and Billy taking his cue quickly moved forward to hand them to Hal who carefully read them before scanning them into the display in front of him to let the others read them before he commented

"There is very little you could give us that we don't already have President Roslin" Forrest told her causing her to almost groan before he added "And your rationing system is woefully inefficient, this is a very biased and corrupt system, who designed it may I ask?" he said seeing how much of the supplies was not evenly distributed and the ship captains and quorum members had the greatest slice

"Our Vice President Gaius Baltar" she answered deflecting the blame away from her as it was the truth. Baltar had made changes to the system when he came into power that she had been unable to stop since the quorum in its own greed had agreed with him. As long as he didn't go hungry or the politicians didn't go hungry that was all that mattered to them. She herself gave most of her rations to the orphaned children that had come to live on _Colonial One_

"And your fleet elected such a woefully ill-equipped man to ensure their survival" a female representative in a pilot's uniform asked and Laura saw their dislike in their eyes

"Gaius Baltar is a charismatic man when he wants to be and there was no other candidate at the time who had any sound policies" Laura told them and Hal took a moment before saying

"We have every intention of helping you Ms Roslin but we do not want to see our donations wasted because of the corruption in your system" Forrest told her making it quite clear that anything they gave would be a gift rather than fair trade and that their political system was wasteful in a situation where it could not afford to be

"In addition" he added "The distribution of your population in quite varied, some ships are over populated while some are nearly empty why is this?" he asked her

"Many of our ships came from specific colony groups which were reluctant to uproot" she said. She had tried to get them to even out the loads out between ships but with every else that was going on she hadn't been able to get back to that issue

"Maybe so but it's an issue that needs to be dealt with" Hal said before they carried on with their meeting

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

In his own private quarters which were luxurious compared to how most of the fleet was living, Gaius Baltar lay in bed with a very naked Playa Palacios who had approached him for an exclusive only for them to have a very enjoyable afternoon and evening. He was only just waking when he heard a voice that he was growing used to although her presence still mystified and scared him

"Gaius" the soft and husky voice said and he moved his head slightly so he didn't wake Playa who was still fast asleep and saw Virtual Six in that red dress sitting at the foot of his bed with her long legs crossed looking at both him and Playa with disgust and what might be jealousy

"You're incapable of keeping it in your pants aren't you Gaius" she said clearly a statement rather than a question "This incredible gift from god comes and all you can think about in getting into another woman's pants" she added with a sneer

He answered quietly and with a slight shake in his voice "You mean the Battlestar _Telmaya_ and its fleet?" he asked wanting confirmation

"Of course their fleet, if you don't keep up you'll be left behind Gaius and be of no use to us" she said firmly and he almost got up with a start but a sleepy mumble from Playa stopped him and he settled back down

"I can still be useful" he insisted and Virtual Six just shook her head before saying in her patronising way

"This fleet is already without even meaning too causing changes in the destinies of everyone both human and Cylon with just their presence, one of my own model has already defected to them, she was supposed to stay loyal to the Cylons to continue to fight for the extermination of humans till she passed into God's hands one day, granted she had already started to question whether the war was right or not but that is beside the point. Humans who were supposed to die will now remain to fight and perhaps begin life anew restarting the cycle" she told him. A lot of what she had said he didn't understand but basically he did realise that he might be rendered unimportant or even useless if this trend continued "You'd had best become useful again Gaius or I will find another to help instigate God's plan" and with that said she vanished into thin air like she had never been there leaving a scared Gaius behind who suddenly felt very cold despite the warmth of the bed and Playa's body.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

_What do you think? _

_I recently got a PM asking me if this story was abandoned and it is not. The real world doesn't give me much time for writing these days so I just do as much as I can when I have the time_


	20. Chapter 20

_I do not own Battlestar Galactica_

**Chapter 20 – Brewing Conflict**

Following their meeting with the Civilian Assembly, Laura Roslin and Billy returned to _Colonial One_ with their minds troubled. The Assembly had agreed to provide a relief package for their civilian population but on certain conditions.

Firstly the rationing system had to be adjusted to make it more efficient and less biased towards a select few. Secondly that they are to be recognised as an independent nation in their own right and free of any influence from the old Colonial Government's regime that many of them had suffered under as working class people. Thirdly Gaius Baltar must step down as Vice President and finally that a referendum be held to determine if the fleet's population felt that she was the right person to lead them.

If it meant getting the food and supplies that were desperately needed for the people, Laura would gladly step aside to let a vote take place, but the other stipulations were sure to be met with resistance. Many of the Quorum members would lose all but the minimum rations to this and Gaius Baltar was sure to resist him being removed from power and finally the resisting of their influence by the Assembly. She could do little to stop them from doing something stupid if the majority voted for an action. The articles of colonisation stated that if the Vice President and the Quorum agreed not only could they rescind any order she gave but even remove her from office. Designed to stop a rash president from making a monumental blunder it now could be used to stop her from preventing them making one.

Billy noticed her troubled look and said to reassure her "Madam President I'm sure everything will be fine" smiling a strained but warm smile. She felt her heart warm at his words even if she knew they were mostly just kind words. She had also been impressed at _Telmaya_. Having only the veteran _Galactica_ in her experience of Battlestars, the brightly lit corridors and clean bulkheads as well as the more advanced technology aboard made _Telmaya_ seem light-years ahead of _Galactica_ and also made her aware that if it came to a fight between the two, _Galactica_ might not win she thought grimly.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

On the _Battlestar Telmaya's_ CIC Amelia Cartwright sat at her station dealing with comm traffic as it buzzed its way around the fleet. It was a habit of her which made the aching pit of loss inside her ease. That she was not alone and that despite the horror of what had happened life went on, humanity may be down but not out.

She was just about to sign off from her shift when she received a message from Galactica addressed to her personally. With the customary anti-virus scans and some suspicion she opened the message and read the contents

_To Lieutenant Amelia Cartwright, Battlestar Telmaya_

_I have information regarding your biological family and wish to meet with you aboard the liner Cloud Nine tomorrow at fifteen hundred hours. The meeting spot will be by the fountain in the main garden area of the dome. Come alone _

The message wasn't signed and Amelia felt ambivalent about this. On the one hand she was very suspicious of the out of the blue communication about family that she had never met nor heard from. But on the other hand a part of her was begging to go, to discover perhaps who she truly was a where she came from. It had almost been a sore spot for her, not knowing details about her past that many people took for granted. Watching families from afar had always caused a pang of longing inside her despite how good her adoptive fathers had been. But then a voice woke her from her musings, almost making her jump

"Something wrong lieutenant?" said Colonel Sheba Cain and Amelia quickly got up and turned around to face her superior officer

"Just a message I received sir" she said honestly, she had always been a hopeless liar and given the tensions that were beginning to rise between the different military ships did not want to be accused of being a spy.

"And hat did this message say?" Sheba asked her sternly her eyes' looking piercingly into Amelia's who struggled not to look away.

"It's a message claiming to have information on my biological family and they want to meet me tomorrow on Cloud Nine alone" she told her. Sheba was a tough officer, demanding only from the people under her and was intimidating enough to achieve it without being too hard. But once you had worked with her for a while she relaxed a bit around you and became friendlier but if anyone started slacking off she quickly reverted back to her intimidating other self.

Although only her best friends would notice this, Sheba's eyes softened for a moment before saying "What do you intend to do?"

"I don't know sir; I mean this family abandoned me, why should I bother if they didn't?" Amelia said breaking the thin veneer of a Colonial officer just for a moment, hoping that Sheba might give her some advice.

"You don't know precisely what might have happened Amelia. They might not have intended to leave you there, but you'll never know if you don't try. But you might hear things that you might not like so do you think you could handle that?" Sheba asked her directly

Amelia nibbled her bottom lip for a moment as she mulled over this and told her friend and senior officer "I need to know" with a trace of fear in her tone

"Then do it, we can have Tyber follow you at a distance if you want?" Sheba said and Amelia shook her head

"No I'll do this alone"

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

At the Quorum meeting that Laura Roslin had called to discuss the proposals of Civilian Assembly this was not a meeting she was relishing but it had to be done. She sat at the head of the table with the other representatives on each side and Baltar sitting at the bottom looking anxious although Roslin didn't know why.

"As you know I have met with the civilian government of the _Telmaya_ fleet" Laura said starting the meeting but within a moment she was interrupted by the Gemonese delegate Sarah Porter

"When will this fleet begin integrating into our own?" she asked rudely not caring much for the President and confident enough to more or less declare it

"I was getting to that before I was so rudely interrupted" Laura said shutting down Porter for the moment "They have agreed to provide a relief package for our own fleet consisting of food, water, parts and personnel to assist in repairing our ships" Roslin stopped for a moment as she watched her words sink in and braced herself for what she was about to start "Providing a number of conditions are met"

As she predicted it wasn't long before the angry murmurs started and Marshall Bagot the Virgon delegate asked "What conditions?"

And so Laura listed them "Firstly the rationing system had to be adjusted to make it more efficient and spread rations out further. Second that the Civilian Assembly as they have named themselves are recognised as an independent nation, third that Gaius Baltar must step down as Vice President and finally that a referendum must be held immediately to determine whether or not the fleet want me as the president" she said

There was a moment of silence before everyone suddenly started yelling in anger against the proposals that had been set and Roslin had to yell for calm before any real sense could be made out of it

"Preposterous those of citizens of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol and they will obey the Quorum of the Twelve" Porter yelled and Roslin shook her head at Porter's words

"They have their own sovereignty as far as I'm concerned and they'll fight for it if they have too and I'm willing to step down as President if that is what it takes to get our people the supplies they need to survive and so should you. As the Quorum of the twelve you are responsible to the people you represent" Laura reminded them and added firmly "These are non-negotiable and we need those supplies now, if you have to make sacrifices to ensure that then you will do it" bringing the matter firmly to a close

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

On _Telmaya_ Seth Trakiss had just returned from _Colossus_ and his meeting with Colonel Colchester. It had gone more or less as he had planned and he was looking forward to some downtime with his favourite woman in the whole universe. He walked into his cabin and smiled when he saw her there. Kendra was sitting on the couch in a civilian shirt and pants with her sixth month's pregnant belly prominent, her hair was loose in waves around her shoulders and she was practically glowing. She was reading a book and looked up when he entered and smiled.

"Hey" she said as he came to sit down and pulled her into his arms so she was leaning back against him

"Hey" he said back placing a kiss on the top of her head

"So how did it go?" she asked him

"As well as can be expected, how are you and our little girl doing?" he said gently placing his hand on her swollen stomach

"We are doing fine and I told you it's a boy, the amount of kicking I get from him is proof of that" she said and they stopped talking and just smiled taking comfort in each other's presence.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

The next day Amelia took a shuttle to _Cloud Nine_ and arrived early at the fountain area of the dome garden. She sat down on the wall and waited for someone to approach her. She had been debating with herself all night whether she should come or not. Tossing and turning in her bunk she had only managed to lose a night's sleep over this before she had finally decided to come.

With each passing moment she was tortured by images of what might happen and as the moment finally arrived she was interrupted from her daydreams when a hand was gently placed on her shoulder. She looked up and saw Captain Lee Adama from the _Galactica_ standing above her with a smile on his face. She quickly jumped to attention and saluted

"Sir I was just waiting for someone and I lost track of time" she said quickly and Captain Adama put his hands up to stop her rambling

"At ease lieutenant I was the one who sent the message" he told her and Amelia looked at him in surprise

"You sir" she said and Lee couldn't help but look at her eyes and see a reflection of his own

"I know who your parents are Amelia. I can call you Amelia right?" he asked and Amelia was instantly confused. As a senior officer he had the right to call her anything he wanted and the way he asked her showed he was nervous about something putting her on guard

"Yes sir" she said slowly "With all due respect sir can you please tell me what you know"

"Yes of course" he said and pulled an old picture out of his pocket that he had been given by his father and passed it to her. Amelia looked at the small photograph and saw the blonde haired woman on it; she was bout mid-thirties with a big smile on her face. Amelia just stared seeing the resemblance between the other woman and herself and almost missed Lee speaking

"This was your mother, her name was Carolanne" he said "She had you without telling your father or even your two brothers and presumably left at the Orphanage"

Amelia just stared in shock, the way he had said it made it sound like her mother had been killed in the attack but he said that she might have a father and two brothers out there that don't even know she existed. But why had her mother abandoned her?

"Why did she do it?" she asked him with anxiety in her voice

Lee gave her a sad smile "I don't know, at that point in her life she was drinking heavily and going through a very messy divorce. Perhaps she couldn't stand the strain of another child or maybe she didn't want her husband insisting they stayed together for your sake"

"So who is my father?" she asked still reeling from the revelations

"Commander William Bill Adama of the _Battlestar Galactica_" Lee told her

Amelia stopped still, trying to process what he had just said. That couldn't be right, her father was her commanding officer's rival for command of the Colonial Military and Captain Lee Adama was her brother

"How do you know this?" she said with fear creeping into her tone "I thought you said that she didn't tell you about me"

"I know because when I look at you, I can see Carolanne and our father" he told her and suddenly it occurred to Amelia that their eyes were the same shade of striking blue. Her eyes had always been her most prominent feature and it seemed that they were a family trait.

"I…I need to think about this" she said and quickly walked away from the fountain leaving Lee who stared after her thinking

'Well that could have gone better'

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Meanwhile on the _Zephyr_ in a disused storage room, Gaius Baltar had called a secret meeting of the Quorum members without Roslin being there to oppose what he was about to suggest

"Right get this over quick Baltar; I want to get out of here as soon as possible" Robin Wenutu the Canceron delegate, hoping to leave this dirty place and return to her comfortable quarters on the Pan Galactic liner she had made her home on.

"Well thank you all for coming of course" he said with his usual charm in every word "We know that Roslin is letting the supposed Civilian Assembly walk right over us. We need those supplies and they need to remember that they are part of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol whether they like it or not" he told them and he saw that they agreed with him "So I propose that we simply 'take' what we need from them and send some marines from _Galactica_ to 'convince' the Assembly to disband back into our own government" he said

The reaction to the statement was mixed, many of the representatives like Sarah Porter nodded in support but two of them looked unsure

"What about Roslin? She would never allow something like this and how do we know that the marines would obey the order? We could be accused of treason" Oswyn Erika the Libran delegate asked looking nervous about this act of treason

"Not if the order came from the President" Baltar said and they looked surprised and confused "If the Quorum votes accordingly we can strip Roslin of her Presidency and as the Vice President I can then sign the order legally"

It was enough to convince Oswyn who nodded in agreement, but Baltar missed the look on Tom Zarek's face as he pondered this development and how best to use it to his advantage.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

A few light-years away from the fleet a Raptor was doing a long range scouting mission, it was dull and tedious but a very important job to scot the local area looking for toasters and potential hazards or resources nearby.

Racetrack and her co-pilot Skulls were bored but that was nothing new and they continued to banter playfully

"Okay first time?" Racetrack asked him and he looked at her

"Seriously?" he asked and she replied

"Seriously"

"Okay, Michelle Tomkins behind the Pyramid court of Delphi High School during the game where no-one could see us. You?" he asked

"Hmm, that would have to with my senior year of high school tutor Mr Wayne over his desk" she said and Skulls looked over at her surprised before she laughed and he realised she just been joking

But they were suddenly distracted from their talk by the displays on Skulls board started making noise and both of them suddenly became all business

"I have a group of small contacts bearing 360 by 248, they seem to be drifting" he told his pilot and Racetrack adjusted her course to check it out. A minute or so later they arrived at what looked like a battle site. Wrecked Colonial Vipers and Cylon raiders drifted in the vacuum

"IDs" she called out to Skulls hoping to identify the mother ship that had launched the Vipers which might still be around given that there was no wreckage of a larger vessel around

"Checking" he told her accessing the beacons that were still working and loaded the data "These birds belonged to Red squadron on the _Battlestar Pegasus_"

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

_Good? Bad? Let me know by reviewing_


	21. Chapter 21

_I do not own Battlestar Galactica_

**Chapter 21 – Resolutions**

Racetrack and Skulls doubled timed it back to _Galactica_ where Commander Adama was waiting for them the moment they got off the pad.

"Did you bring back any of the wreckage?" he asked them as they stepped off the pad still in their pressure suits with their helmets on.

"Yes sir the most intact flight recorder we could find, sir this is a good thing isn't it? More Colonial Ships out there" Racetrack said to her superior officer confused at why the Commander was acting like this was some kind of bad omen

"Just get the flight recorder over to Tyrol and have him to try and recover as much as he can, after that grab some rack time dismissed" he told them and the two confused Raptor pilots left to do as they had been ordered. Meanwhile Commander Adama looked over at the wrecked pieces that had once been a Colonial Viper just like the ones in the launch tubes not far from where he was standing. If they were indeed from _Pegasus_ then it could be very well be an omen of troubles to come, if Helena Cain was in the area then it was very possible that she might stumble upon the fleet.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Amelia Cartwright meanwhile had retreated to her quarters where she'd stripped down and crawled into her bed to be left alone with her thoughts. The knowledge that she had wanted for so long was now finally hers and she almost wished she was still in the dark about her origins. Granted it could have been far worse than it was but still from the sounds of it her mom had been a drunken woman who didn't even have the decency to tell her father that she existed and now Amelia was nearly a grown woman and had missed so much. Her father and her brother were strangers to her. She'd have to demand a DNA test to confirm that they were indeed her family to put any further doubt to rest though.

She looked at the clock and saw that she had a shift on the CIC in ten minutes so she reluctantly got out of bed and pulled on her uniform before heading off to the command centre of the ship.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Seth Trakiss was in a meeting with Hal Forrest and the two were discussing the situation with the Quorum of the Twelve.

"During the meeting I could tell that Laura Roslin was amenable to our terms" Hal told him "But from what we've learned Baltar and the rest of the representatives on the Quorum will not be so agreeable. Most of them live the high life as much as possible while the rest of the fleet starve"

Seth just nodded his head in sad agreement. Already some of them had gone to fleet journalists in an attempt to stir up ill-feeling towards the Civilian Assembly but it had backfired when their own journalists had unleashed a counter broadcast detailing the corruption in the Quorum and why the Assembly was demanding these changes.

"We'll just have to see what they do. With Roslin in charge I doubt they'll do anything drastic but we should still be on our guard" Seth told him "For the moment I want you and the rest of the assembly members to remain on _Telmaya_ where I can guarantee your safety." Seth told him and Hal nodded

"I'll arrange it, how's Kendra?" Hal asked and Seth smiled

"Glowing but bored out of her mind" Seth said happily. In a couple of months he would be a father and he could hardly wait to see his and Kendra's child. He was petrified about bringing a child into this mess but life didn't wait for the war to end. You had to take happiness were you could find it. Hal was a great source of knowledge regarding parenting; despite having issues with his daughter he had experienced all the hurdles and high points of being a parent.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Meanwhile an emergency meeting of the Quorum of the Twelve on _Cloud Nine_ had been called by Gaius Baltar. All the delegates had arrived and Laura Roslin sat at the head of the table in her customary place. Tom Zarek was sitting in his seat looking smug about something but she had no idea what. There was a niggling feeling in her gut, a definite feeling that something was wrong but whatever it was she would have to wait till it happened.

All the delegates took their seats around the table and Baltar, Laura noticed was looking far too smug for it to be anything good. Without even letting her open the meeting as was the normal custom, Baltar started talking

"I have here signed by eleven members of the Quorum of the Twelve a declaration of no-confidence in Laura Roslin as President of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol citing her lack of action in bring the errant _Telmaya_ fleet into our own and a demand for me as Vice President to assume the office so to begin the merging process with force if required" Baltar said with supreme confidence, revelling in being the centre of attention

Laura was able to stop herself from yelling and stated calmly hoping to regain some control of the situation

"I have been trying to avoid a full Colonial civil war when we are already struggling to survive against the Cylons, they will resist any attempt to intimidate them by force" and Tom Zarek crossed his arms, admiring her composure in the face of adversity.

"It will not come to that Ms Roslin" Porter said sneering making it very clear that she was no longer the President "A quick show of force in their meeting and they will disband"

Laura just shook her head; she had hoped something like this wouldn't happen but it seemed her fears of them doing something stupid to retain their hold on power were fully justified. The Assembly met on the same Battlestar which had started their government, Trakiss would not allow any intimidation of the Assembly on his ship and certainly as Laura feared any executions. Baltar started talking again

"Since you and Mr Zarek disagree with our decision both of you will be detained here while the marines I have selected go to the _Battlestar Telmaya_ and encourage the Assembly to submit" he said and Laura looked over to Zarek in surprise who just smiled at her as they were both tied down to their chairs by marines that had been providing security. The leader of the marines came over and Laura saw to her dismay that it was Sergeant Hadrian, the same marine who had turned the inquests about whether _Galactica_ was lax with security in a witch hunt for Cylon agents. The bitch gave her a smug grin before turning to Baltar who told her with a smile

"This is the order that will get you and your men aboard _Telmaya_, go there and make it clear to the Assembly in any way you wish that they are to disband and have their citizens report to their own representatives on the Quorum of the Twelve"

"With pleasure" Hadrian said and directed her men to leave with her while the rest of the Quorum stayed to watch their captive former President and rogue Quorum member. One of Baltar's own men, returned ten minutes later to tell him that the marines would be landing on _Telmaya_ in a moment when Zarek started laughing. Not just a small chuckle although it started like that till it got very loud. Laura and the rest of them looked at him like he had gone mad and Oswyn asked him in an angry voice

"What the hell is so funny?"

Zarek managed to stop laughing so he could tell them "You have no idea of the problems with your plan do you?

"And what flaws would there be Mr Zarek?" Baltar asked angrily and sarcastically, that this terrorist had the gall to laugh at his plans rankled so much he might have struck him if he had been that sort of man.

"That you could keep this from the rest of the fleet till you had managed to suppress the assembly" Zarek told him and started to laugh again when Baltar noticed something in Zarek's ear, he rushed over and forced the still laughing Zarek to move his head to the side by grasping it with his hands and saw that nestled in Zarek's ear was an ear piece communicator.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

All across the fleet the signal from Zarek was being relayed by the _Astral Queen_. Everyone close to a wireless set heard the power grab by Baltar and his cronies. On the _Telmaya's_ CIC, Seth turned to Tyber who was standing at his side

"Get some men together and head those assholes off and station some additional men with the Assembly members in case they sneak through" Seth ordered and Tyber nodded "Yes sir" and went to leave before Seth called out

"Tyber, stop them by any means necessary" in a cold and informal tone and Tyber nodded understanding the hidden meaning.

Three squads of marines were sent to protect the Assembly members while Tyber led his own two squads to the landing bay and positioned themselves near the cargo boxes that were stacked up around the bay, containing fresh parts intended for the _Galactica_ fleet ironically. They didn't have long to wait before the hostile raptors landed and a company of marines disembarked. The leader of the enemy marines, a woman in desert combat uniform and sporting the name tag Hadrian came up to Tyber with her rifle on her back and a piece of paper in her hands.

"This is an order by the President of the Twelve Colonies allowing us immediate access to this ship without escort" Hadrian said without even introducing herself, looking down at the little snot of a Sergeant Major who was standing in front of her.

"This vessel is not under the jurisdiction of the Quorum of the Twelve and Baltar's grab for power has been revealed to the fleet. Stand down or we will put you down" Tyber told the arrogant woman in front of him and the marines behind him all clicked the safeties off of their weapons from behind their cover

Hadrian's face instantly lost its smug sneer and she went to grab Tyber by the scruff of his neck but on instinct Tyber blocked her arm and slammed his other fist into her midsection causing her to double over.

Hadrian's marines took this as an attack and opened fire, Tyber and Hadrian both dived out of the way as the bullets flew. Tyber managed to get behind a case of adaptors and the deckhands all took cover. _Telmaya's_ marines returned fire and Baltar's marines made to use the raptors they had arrived in as for cover but didn't stand a chance as without even thinking the _Telmaya_ marines did as they were trained to do, shot to kill. Tyber himself nailed Hadrian as the female marine went to shot a deckhand who had taken cover behind a parked Viper.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

On _Cloud Nine_ Baltar was panicking. The fleet was loyal to Roslin for the most part and he had intended to announce that the _Telmaya_ fleet was being integrated into theirs bringing fresh supplies to their fleet. That should have at least put off any resistance to him for the meanwhile till he had consolidated his position. But if the Assembly had received prior warning then they could have escaped to another ship and his troops would have been intercepted.

He ignored the other members of the Quorum who were now panicking like him and focused on Zarek who had stopped laughing and was looking at them with a self-satisfied smile that inflamed Baltar and he yelled at him

"Why did you do this? You stood to gain just like we did?"

Zarek shook his head before answering "If that's what you think then you don't get me at all, I want to make the old government a thing of the past with its corruption and to make the situation for the whole of the people better rather than just the select few. Granted I'm not above fulfilling my own self-interests but at least I will try to do so when it coincides with the greater good of the people" Zarek told them. Roslin who was sitting not far away thought to herself that he was just blowing smoke

Baltar didn't have time to reply, because at that precise moment the doors to the room were blown out throwing both him and his colleagues to the floor, through the dust marines from _Galactica_ came rushing in yelling out "Nobody move" before forcing the recovering delegates down to the floor face first and binding their hands behind their backs. Roslin and Zarek shut their eyes to avoid the dust but Roslin opened hers when she heard her name being called and saw Corporal Venner staring down at her with concern in his eyes

"Madam President. Are you alright?" he asked and she gave the Corporal a smile

"Better now you here Corporal" she told him and he smiled as he and one of his men undid the bindings on both her and Zarek

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Gaius Baltar was taken by the marines straight to the _Astral Queen_ where he was stripped of his suit and forced to put on a set of red prison scrubs, his fellow delegates were all suffering the same treatment and as he protested "I'm a Colonial citizen I have a right a trial"

But the marines ignored him and shoved hard into one of the vacant cells on the Astral Queen and the door slammed shut behind him. He ran over to the bars and shouted to the marines who were leaving

"I' AM GAIUS BALTAR! I'M THE VICE PRESIDENT OF THE TWELVE COLONIES OF KOBOL" but the marines ignored him. He rested his head against the door for a moment before the voice that had brought him comfort sometimes since the destruction of the Colonies spoke to him

"Well it seems you have really got yourself into trouble now haven't Gaius" he turned around to see Six sitting there on the bunk in the same red dress she had worn the first time she had appeared to him

"You've got to help me, I need to get out of here" he pleaded with her but she just smiled a smug smile before saying

"I don't think that there's much I can do Gaius. But at least you did prove useful to us in the end" and he looked at her confused "Your little grab for power has left the old government broken and the Assembly will take charge unifying the Colonials under one banner. But now we don't need you anymore" she added with a finality in her voice that made the horror of his situation dawn on him

"But" he stammered and she gave him an insincere looking expression of pity

"No Gaius your little part in this saga is done. You are going to remain locked up in this cell for the rest of your wretched life until one day no-one will even remember the name Gaius Baltar" she said before saying with something akin to regret in her voice "Goodbye Gaius" and vanished into thin air

Then overcome with everything that had happened, Gaius's mind finally snapped and with tears streaming down his face he yelled out "SIX COME BACK"

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

A few hours later on _Galactica_ the commanding officers of all the military ships in the fleet gathered with Colonel Tigh, Hal Forrest and Laura Roslin in one of the big meeting rooms to discuss what to do next. Laura had come to a decision about what she was going to suggest, and to be fair she preferred it

"I suggest that we integrate our fleet with yours Hal. It would take too long to rebuild our old government and as was just proved it was too susceptible to corruption" and everyone nodded much to her relief, she was still devoted to the fleet's survival but had never wanted the job herself and was confident that the fleet was safe in the Assembly's hands, Hal smiled and told her

"I'll send out some people to get the integration process started but I believe Commander Adama had something he wanted to say" and everyone turned to the oldest of the military officers in the room who put his glass of water down to stand up and report

"This morning a raptor on long range scouting operations discovered wreckage of several Mark 7 Vipers. They recovered the flight recorder and brought it back to _Galactica_ where my crew chief managed to get some recordings off of it" he said pausing for a moment before telling them "It confirmed that the _Battlestar Pegasus_ was in this general area less than three days ago"

The reaction in the room was immediate, they all lost any smiles they had and grimaced. Trakiss had ensured that all of the military commanders and the executive officers had seen the disturbing evidence that _Telmaya_ had collected regarding the piracy-like actions of the _Pegasus_. His visit to Colonel Colchester had been to gather her support should _Pegasus_ arrive. The horrible images from the stripped ships they had discovered filled with bodies that had either been shot with colonial guns that had been made to protect or suffocated by the build-up of CO2 after _Pegasus_ had removed the ship's air scrubbers. Some people had still been alive on-board and spend weeks in the sick bays before finally recovering or not as was unfortunate in many cases.

"Well if _Pegasus_ is sending out long patrols like we do then they'll probably find the fleet eventually, the large Cylon fleet following us is enough of a giveaway" the dark haired and recently promoted Colonel Abby Brant of the cruiser _Ulysses_ pointed out and Colonel Paula Yates of the Dreadnaught _Achilles_ asked

"Well what are we going to do?" and Seth told her

"Not allow her control of this fleet that's what"

"But how, she's a Rear-Admiral, we're just a collection of Commanders and Colonels" Colonel Russell O'Donnell of the _Battlestar Vulcan_ said "The more duty bound members of our crews would probably obey her, if we had a Vice or Fleet Admiral we'd be alright" he added resigned but the Colonel Ishii of the _Battlestar Rycon_ clicked her fingers and said surprising everyone

"That's it" and Laura Roslin looked over at her and asked

"What's it?" and Ishii explained

"As the Head of the government, Chairman Forrest has the power with the agreement of the Assembly to appoint an officer in the Colonial Military to the rank of Fleet Admiral during a state of emergency. With a full fleet admiral in charge Cain won't have any option but to follow if she wants the protection that the uniform provides and to remain in command of _Pegasus_"

They all took a moment to think about her proposal before Seth smiled and told her

"That's brilliant Beatrix" loosing formality and calling her by her first name for once and she smiled back while he spoke "There's really only one choice for the position, Commander William Adama" and the older man looked at Seth surprised as did many of the others in the room before Seth explained his reasoning

"Commander Adama is an experienced officer who has a reputation for excellence, Cain would have more respect for him than any of us and I feel that he has the necessary chops to stop Cain if she pushes" and the old man looked at his young counterpart who smiled back at him and said

"I'm glad to see that you have so much faith in me but I think Chairman Forrest has something to add" and they all turned to Hal who frowned. Hal would rather have had Seth as Fleet Admiral but as Seth had just pointed out, Adama had a much better chance of controlling Cain than he did.

"I'll get it approved with the Assembly but I can guarantee you that they will have two concessions" he said and Adama braced himself for whatever supply demand they would have only to hear Hal say "That Commander Trakiss is second in command and that we have a representative for the civilian government aboard _Galactica_ at all times"

"Done, do you have any one in mind?" Adama said without hesitation

"I think Laura Roslin would make a good representative don't you?" Hal said and Laura smiled as did Adama who said

"Absolutely"

Seth smiled before saying "Right we need to do this properly so there can be no doubt in anyone's minds. A full naming ceremony for Commander Adama, rank pins and a new uniform" he said

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Amelia had just gotten off her shift in the CIC and arrived in her quarters when she noticed the picture of her mother Carolanne that she had been given by Captain Adama was sitting on her sideboard just where she'd left it. She walked over and picked it up and stared, trying to image the sort of woman she was but didn't know enough

'But if I contacted Commander Adama and Captain Adama they could tell me' she thought to herself and decided to at least hear them out. She'd arrange a meeting tomorrow

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

_Like or hate, please review and tell me _


	22. Chapter 22

_I do not own Battlestar Galactica_

**Chapter 22 – Pegasus **

Two days spent by as the leaders of the fleet rushed to get the ceremony ready. Commander Adama's existing uniforms were taken and tailored with new gold stitching around the cuffs and jacket, a jeweller was sought out to make the new Fleet admiral the correct rank pins. The date was arranged with the entire fleet's media in attendance. The commanders of all military ships and their XOs would be there to recognise their new commanding officer. The Civilian Assembly would also be present with most of _Galactica's_ crew who wanted to see their leader's big day.

Laura Roslin was given the job of working with Adama to get him ready for his big day. They were sitting in his cabin going over his speech

"This position that I have been entrusted with is one of the greatest that any Colonial citizen can be granted. I vow that I will uphold the standards that this uniform stands for and to use all of my will to defend the population of this fleet" Adama read to Roslin from his own ideas "You know this makes me sound like a fictional character in war movie" he remarked to her. Laura smiled as she heard the nerves in his voice, despite how well he hid them

"Regardless it's what the people need to hear" she told him "And making this as public as we have there'll be no doubt as to who is in command of the military and no way Cain can claim that you aren't the fleet admiral you will be by this time tomorrow"

He was about to try his speech again when he and Laura heard a knocking on the door, he got up to answer it and saw to his surprise that Amelia Cartwright, his previously unknown daughter was standing there nervously biting her lip.

"Yes Lieutenant can I help you?" Adama asked and Amelia forced herself to stand straighter and say as clearly as she could

"Yes sir, I know you're busy but if you could spare a moment?" she asked and Commander Adama nodded before turning to Laura Roslin "We've covered enough today, I'd like to speak with the lieutenant alone if you please"

Laura looked conflicted; on the one hand they still had a lot to get through but she realised that both of them were tired so little further progress could be made. The man wanted to spend some time with his daughter that had been denied him because of his ex-wife. So Laura nodded and made her way to her new cabin on _Galactica_.

"Come in lieutenant, sit down" the Commander said and Amelia nervously made her way inside and sat down on the sofa. She looked around her and took in the homely looking cabin with the books, model ships and a few paintings that she would have loved to examine had the situation been any different. The old man sat down on the other side of the sofa and she felt his presence filling up the room

"Sir I…I trust you know about what our…relationship is?" she asked nervously hoping that he did indeed know

"Yes lieutenant, when I had suspicions I had your DNA profile from you fleet record compared to mine and your brother" he said not wanting to tell her how he had really gotten the sample and he handed her a folder which contained the test results. She flipped through it and saw the results in black and white. No denying it now.

"So sir I was hoping that maybe you could shed some light on some questions that I have?" she asked hoping to learn where she came from

"Of course you deserve to know your history" Adama said and he gave her a smile before telling her "You come from a long line of Tauron farmers, men and women who worked the land and still stood tall and proud. When the Tauron Civil War broke out our family sided with the Ha'la'tha resistance, eventually your great grandparents were killed by the Herac enforcers. My father Joseph, your grandfather moved to Caprica where he became a noted civil liberties lawyer working for the Ha'la'tha crime syndicate…" he said starting the tale that his father had told him since he was a small child enthralling Amelia as she learned the origins of her bloodline.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

The following morning, the starboard flight pod of _Galactica_ looked spotless, perhaps the only place that was on the entire ship. A crew of cleaners had scrubbed the walls and floors leaving no place unturned and colonial banners had been hung from the high ceiling and hundreds of chairs set out so everyone could attend. A large podium had been set up in front and a sound system installed so that everyone could hear what was being said and that it could be transmitted across the fleet.

People started arriving early to get the best seats that hadn't already been reserved. The beta shift staff of _Galactica_ took over CIC operations so that the alpha shift personnel could attend the ceremony. Colonel Tigh with his wife Ellen sat at the very front which delighted Ellen no end. Laura Roslin took the seat next to them, straining to block out Ellen's endless talking till thankfully her husband shut her up. Lee Adama sat with Kara Thrace next to Roslin, Billy and Duala after that with Galen Tyrol and Cally. Gaeta had been given the role of announcer and so he sat on the stage itself with the senior military commander and Hall Forrest. Reporters set themselves up at the front of the stage with their recording equipment.

Meanwhile William Adama took one more opportunity to look at his prepared speech on the small area behind the stage out of sight of the gathering crowd, he was nervous but would never admit it. He adjusted the jacket of his uniform and tugged at the collar as the ceremony began

Lieutenant Gaeta stepped forward to the microphone and announced to the crowd

"Today we are here to bestow upon one of our leading officers the greatest honour and responsibility that this civilisation can. Selecting this officer to the office of Fleet Admiral of the Colonial Fleet, now I call to the stand Commander William Adama and Chairman Hal Forrest" and the crowd politely clapped as the two men stepped forward letting Gaeta go to the side and sit down. The Commander walked up already in his newly altered uniform and Hal in a suit that he felt uncomfortable in but he wanted to make it look at least professional. Hal began reciting the oath of office which Adama repeated, nervously sweating as the eyes of the crowd watched intently. He could see his son and daughter smiling to him in the crowd making him feel a little better

"I William Adama" (Forrest)

"I William Adama" (Adama)

"Do hereby accept the rank and post of Fleet Admiral, Commander-In-Chief of the Colonial Military" (Forrest)

"Do hereby accept the rank and post of Fleet Admiral, Commander-In-Chief of the Colonial Military" (Adama)

"That I will with all my strength protect and defend the peoples of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol" (Forrest)

"That I will with all my strength protect and defend the peoples of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol" (Adama)

"That I will uphold the values and standards that the Colonial Military is built on" (Forrest)

"That I will uphold the values and standards that the Colonial Military is built on" (Adama)

"As long as I shall live" (Forrest)

"As long as I shall live" (Adama)

"Then I hereby present you with your badge of office, stand and be recognised Fleet Admiral William Adama" Hal Forrest said pinning the rank pins on Adama's neck so the freshly promoted flag officer stood up to the podium now with his rank pin gleaming in the light for all to see. A rousing round of applause started from the members of his crew and quickly followed by the other members of the audience as the ship commanders lead by Seth stepped forward and saluted their new commanding officer who duly saluted back and waited for the applause to die down before making his speech

"Thank you all firstly for giving me this great honour that I will my hardest to be worthy of and that I will work my hardest to accomplish. And my first order of business is to promote Commander Seth Trakiss to the rank of Commodore" he announced and Seth stepped you to the podium where he saluted his superior officer and Adama saluted back before taking Seth's commander pins and replacing them with the new commodore ones.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

D'Anna Biers was close to the action at the foot of the stage, watching Adama and Trakiss get promoted, she was hoping to get out of here so she could send her reports on the fleet back to her own people tonight. She and One had been hoping that the two commanders might have started fighting; weakening the fleet so they would be easier to destroy but it seems that was not in god's plan.

After the event finally ended and she had even managed to interview Trakiss and Adama who had politely answered her questions on their intentions before she left for her shuttle back to the ship she had based herself on, the _Queen Astra_. She bid her cameraman, a human goodbye as he wanted to stay on _Galactica_ awhile longer. When she climbed abort the shuttle she noticed a very strong and young looking black man and a bunch of other men sitting on the racks of boxes that doubled as seats. She ignored them and sat on her own box as the shuttle took off, everything seemed fine until they were half way to the _Queen Astra_ and the shuttle suddenly changed course.

"What's going on?" she asked getting up to see the pilot, only for one of the men sitting behind her to pull out a concealed Taser out of her pocket and shot it straight into her turned back. She didn't even have a chance to fight it as the volts coursed into her body sending her twitching straight to the floor. She tried to move but could only keep twitching as more electricity was sent via the two thin cables into her body. She was relieved to feel it stop only her hands to be bound while she was still recovering from the sudden attack and a syringe jabbed into her ass and felt very drowsy before falling asleep.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Meanwhile back on _Galactica_, One was in his quarters enjoying or trying to enjoy an evening with the prostitute Six that was still in the fleet. His anger over the continuing failures to cause any damage to the human fleet was escalating; tonight he had smashed two desks to work out his frustration only for it to get worse. The arrival of the _Telmaya_ fleet had made matter worse as they got better organised and equipped making his job even harder especially since no new Cylons had come forward from the new fleet, either they were still in hiding, they had been captured or executed or there weren't any. Given the size of the fleet it was unlikely but not impossible.

He took a swig of the ambrosia in his hand and Six took the bottle from him before taking a swig herself. Six gave him a sneer before pouring salt into the wound

"Well One how is your great master plan going on? You only managed to do minor damage to a badly equipped and disorganised fleet, now their bigger, more co-ordinated and on high alert" she said and One struck her across the face with his palm sending her to the ground before saying

"Your kind is only good at frakking, whatever the humans have managed to achieve they have only borrowed themselves more time" he started kicking the Six in the ribs over and over again. He was about to start on her head when he heard the hatch open and turned around to see a group of marines aiming their guns at him and then before he could say a word one of them tazered him into unconsciousness.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

"Operation Snatch was a complete success Admiral" Tyber reported to Adama, Seth and Hal the following morning "We grabbed all three of the known Cylons without them even putting up a fight. We sent the Six to the infirmary under guard; the other two are secured in separate cells isolated from each other"

"Good work Sergeant Major Jones, that Cylon prisoner of yours gave us good Intel Commodore" Adama told him and Seth

"Thank you sir, I suggest we airlock the One eventually I doubt given the character analysis that we will get anything useful out of him. Maybe we can convince the other Six given what One did to her to talk though, perhaps even defect if we're lucky. The Three I don't know, they're pretty loyal according to Selena but they're firm believers in the One God. Maybe we can use that to our advantage" Seth said to Adama who looked thoughtful and Hal asked

"How?"

"If we can convince her that god did not order this war, then it will seed doubts in her mind, add good treatment on our part and hopefully she will at least be forced to consider that they were wrong to attack us" Seth said. This approach had worked previously with Selena and he was hoping that D'Anna might be the same. The more Cylons they could convince to defect and provide valuable Intel the better

Adama thought for a moment thinking over the pros and cons of the plan. He initially wanted to airlock the lot of them immediately after interrogating them. But Trakiss had managed to get him to consider this approach as their prisoner Selena had provided a long of useful intelligence because of her own treatment at the hands of the _Telmaya_ crew. Already Seth had actually requested moving Sharon to secured quarters and for them to find a job for her so they could hopefully get more co-operations. He had decided to grant their request but Corporal Venner was ordered to keep a close eye on her at all times.

They were interrupted from their meeting when the phone on the Admiral's desk rang, the old man went over and picked up the receiver and said "This is the Admiral"

"Admiral, this is Lieutenant Gaeta, sir the _Battlestar Pegasus_ just appeared on long range dradis and she's not alone Admiral, there's another Battlestar with her"

"Which ship lieutenant?" Adama asked

"Identity beacons say it's the _Battlestar Artemis_ sir, Admiral Cain is requesting permission to board _Galactica_" Gaeta told him and Adama grimaced as well as thanking the gods that more people had survived

"Grant her permission to board in two hours Lieutenant" Adama said before putting the receiver down and turned to the rest of the men in the room and told them

"Cain has arrived and she's brought _Pegasus_ and _Artemis_"

The two men sighed in concern. They had hoped for more time before having to deal with Cain let alone the second ship that she had got with her. Both ships were _Mercury class_ like _Telmaya_ but while _Pegasus_ was about eight years old, _Artemis_ was relatively brand new. Due to the cutbacks made by the Adar administration after their mishandling of the budget no Colonial Battlestar had actually been completed in almost seven years. Any ships that had been ordered had been cancelled or never finished as was the case with _Telmaya_ which had only been built four years ago. Finally though after three older vessels had been scrapped the Colonial military had finally managed to bleed enough money out of the President and the Quorum to allow a new Battlestar to be constructed; so just three months before the fall of the Colonies the _Battlestar Artemis_ was completed and launched to great fanfare.

She was upgraded using many of the lessons learned by having the _Mercury class_ in operation; she carried an additional raptor and viper squadron carrying eleven total, she only carried a heavier weapons outfit with a third turret added to her forward main battery, a greater concentration of anti-fighter and missile batteries over the hull and five additional secondary batteries spread even across the ship. Featuring the latest in Colonial technology the ship had become the symbol of the Colonial fleet in this post Cylon war age. How the ship which had been in service for only three months prior to the fall had survived Adama didn't know but that didn't matter now

"So what are we going to do?" Hal asked and Seth said

"The only option is a court-martial, we have enough evidence for a conviction but we haven't got any JAG officers"

"We can put a court together with me, Colonel Ishii and Colonel O'Donnell as the judges, you prosecute and allow Cain to choose her own advocate but knowing what we do about her, she'll probably defend herself" Adama told him and Seth nodded secretly looking forward to bringing the cold-hearted bitch down but was far too disciplined an officer to openly show it.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Two hours later, Admiral Cain's raptor set down on the landing pad and was lowered into place. An honour guard that was required when welcoming a flag officer on-board had been arranged so that Cain would not suspect anything. The marines at the front of the honour guard and those concealed up on the gantries had already received their orders. The Raptor carrying the target came to a halt in front of the guard who stood to attention while the hatch opened.

The marines disembarked first all tall and mean looking men, next a Captain in a viper flight suit stepped out looking smug and self-assured, and then a rather stout looking Colonel before finally the target followed by the Raptor's pilot and ECO stepped out. Adama stepped forward and waited for Cain to salute, the other admiral saw his rank pins and she looked intently into his eyes trying to see deception or nerves but saw nothing and with reluctance Cain saluted and Adama then saluted her

"Admiral Cain" Adama said without expression

"Admiral Adama" Cain said challengingly but then the trap was sprung as the marines at the front of the honour guard moved forward so that they were between Cain and her officers while the marines on the gantry moved out of their positions into full view. Seth stepped forward and told the female officer

"Admiral Helena Cain, by order of the Colonial government I' am hereby placing you under arrest on charges of piracy, treason, murder and violations of the Caprican charter" and the marines quickly slapped binders on Cain, two of them dragging her away from her crew who protested loudly while the other marines held them at bay. Seth took her service weapon out of its holster and fired it into the air, silencing the _Pegasus_ group immediately before telling them

"Colonel Fisk you will return to _Pegasus_ with your men and co-operate fully with the investigation into the charges that have been laid against Admiral Cain and I will not tolerate any in subornation or interference from your crew and Cain will be moved to another ship after you have departed so do not even think about mounting a break out operation. A group of civilian investigators will arrive shortly on _Pegasus_ to gather evidence led by Captain Serina Boxman, you will be providing them with any assistance they require" he told the colonel who looked at him disbelievingly wondering how the situation could have changed so quickly

"How do I know that the Admiral won't be air locked the moment we leave?" Fisk demanded and Seth gave him a stern look that made the older man back away before saying

"We are giving the admiral a trial as per her rights as a colonial citizen, she will have the opportunity to defend herself. Now Colonel" Seth said reminding the man that he was the senior officer "I suggest you follow orders or perhaps you'd like to join Admiral Cain in her cell" he said warningly and Fisk's will broke first saying

"Yes sir"

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

_Hope you like the new chapter, please review and let me know what you think_


	23. Chapter 23

_I do not own Battlestar Galactica_

_Warning descriptions of sexual assault _

_Part of the conversation between D'Anna Biers and Seth was inspired by one from Michael Weyer's story The Journey's Trek between Spock and D'Anna_

_Chronus1326 – Scylla and her fleet in this universe got away because they were warned by an officer on Pegasus who was executed after that. Unfortunately Pegasus discovered a number of other civilian ships after that which they did manage to strip_

**Chapter 23 – The Trial of Helena Cain**

In her new cell on-board the _Rycon_, D'Anna Biers sat at a table chained down with the freshly promoted Commodore Trakiss across from her. It had been decided to keep her separate from the other Cylon prisoners so they could not influence her or she in turn have influenced them. Seth was looking through the dossier they had gathered on her and paid her little attention. The marine in the corner was doing it for him in case D'Anna decided to attack him.

D'Anna did no such thing, she bristled at him ignoring her knowing that the only reason she would be here like this was if her cover had been blown. She wondered for a moment if the buckets of water were waiting outside so they could subject her to water boarding or perhaps electrodes to attach to her body, after all that was how they had captured her which a Taser maybe that was their policy. She hoped that they give the opportunity to commit suicide or at least get them to kill her so that she could return to her own people. The young Commodore suddenly looked up for his dossier and straight into her eyes, she hoped to see some fear or at least anger that she could twist but there was just an icy calm stare

'Crunch time' she thought

"Miss Biers I understand that you are a model Three Cylon, you have been posing as a human reporter for a period of at least eight years since the earliest record of you we have goes back that far?" Seth asked her calmly and she said

"Yes eight years and no-one even realised I was there" she said smugly creating a mask of superiority she hoped would rile him but that damned calm demeanour persisted and he just asked

"I have a few questions to ask you though. Why did your people after four decades of peace resume armed conflict with humanity? After all we sent a colonial officer to Armistice Station every year to try and open a diplomatic dialogue with your people"

D'Anna shook her head "Your ships violated the Armistice line two years ago, the _Battlestar Valkyrie_ crossed over and launched a stealth ship into our territory"

Seth was surprised at that "I will be questioning Admiral Adama about that later but I'm afraid that excuse won't fly Miss Biers, as I said earlier we know now that Cylon agents have been working towards the destruction of the Colonies for at least eight years if your own presence is any indication so I will asked you again. Why did your people after four decades of peace resume armed conflict with humanity?"

D'Anna then gained confidence in her eyes and her stance "Because we were chosen"

Seth raised his eyebrow "By whom?"

"By the One God to wipe away his flawed creations and prove ourselves worthy of his love" D'Anna said fanatically and Seth chuckled slightly shaking his head in apparent disbelief. This enraged D'Anna who said angrily "You dare mock me?"

Seth stopped shaking his head and said with a bemused smile "I'm just remarking how like us you have become"

D'Anna froze in anger before going to leap at Seth but the chains stopped her and she contented herself with yelling "We are nothing like you! We hate humans. God gave us our souls and we will prove ourselves to him by destroying you"

Seth suddenly became serious and looked her straight in the eyes and told her in a cold and firm voice that was as untouched by emotion as artic ice "You have declared a war of extermination on another race for the sake of a god that you have never seen nor spoken too. The Colonials once waged wars against their own people for much the same reason. That sounds like a very human action to me Miss Biers"

D'Anna's anger suddenly evaporated as his words sank in and Seth continued

"Let me make this clear to you Miss Biers. You have been captured spying on us for the Cylons that usually carries the death penalty after a very lengthy and brutal interrogation process. You are a beautiful woman and I have no doubt that there are some men out there that would love to add sexual assault to the repertoire of tortures they could inflict on you"

D'Anna's breath stopped in her throat as the horrible possibilities of what could happen to her started to play like one of her documentaries through her mind. Being forced onto her hands and knees or on her back as human men forced themselves on her, the pain and violation of the imagined images was enough to make D'Anna sliver and the shock from his other words were still bouncing around her mind, but then Trakiss told her

"However as a prisoner of war you will be protected from such actions, I do not believe in such practices and feel them vile. You will be secured in this cell for the immediate future and provided with meals that will be withdrawn for misbehaviour. Co-operation with us we gain you privileges such as books or other such entertainments but now I will leave you to contemplate my words" Seth told her before getting up to leave and then turning around to impart one last statement to her "Miss Biers we regardless of what you may think of us we are not animals and perhaps God has his own plans that we as imperfect beings cannot comprehend think on that" before leaving a very confused and disturbed D'Anna in her new cell.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Sheba sat in her quarters in the low lighting as she tried to work out the issues that had arisen. Her mother was here alive and now locked up facing charges that could get her the death penalty.

Sheba was very ambivalent; one side of her was glad that the nasty bitch was going to get what she deserved, the sights that she had seen on the stripped vessels quite vivid in her mind. But on the other hand, she was her mother and she wanted to see her but couldn't quite bring herself to do it

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Captain Serina Boxman sat in the small marine troopship with her small teams of civilian investigators and an escorting company of marines for protection in case the _Pegasus_ crew decided to try something. They were preparing to board _Pegasus_ to begin their investigation into the ship's conduct. This was outside her normal duties as CAG but with Sheba being a relation to Cain she had been excused from the task.

The pilot announced to them that they were about to land so Serina turned to her group and told them "Now let me remind you that this is to be considered a hostile environment go nowhere without an escort and take nothing at face value. Log any evidence you take and record any conversations you have with the crew, understood?" she asked and they all nodded as the buckled in for the landing.

The troopship arrived in _Pegasus's_ port landing bay and was soon lowered into the pressured bay. The marines went first, opening the hatch and took point, then Serina and the civilians followed, all around them the flight crew kept giving them dirty looks. A timid looking lieutenant was there to greet them he said after saluting Serina

"Welcome to _Pegasus_ Captain, I'm Lieutenant Hoshi. Colonel Fisk has assigned me to be your guide while you're on-board"

Serina frowned, the layout of this ship was nearly exactly the same as _Telmaya_ and she suspected that the lieutenant was supposed to make saw they avoided certain areas. So she told him

"We have orders from Admiral Adama to search this ship for evidence concerning your actions since the fall of the colonies" she told him showing the order to him "We will start with Admiral Cain's office and her quarters and I will tolerate no interference is that clear?" she said sternly making Hoshi nod

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

The team removed Cain's logbooks and copies of the reports that she had kept from her underlings. The quarters had been very Spartan and the office the display of weapons aside was quite bland as well. Serina made a note of everything they had taken before moving on to the interviews as half the group preceded to the computer records room. They were passing the brig when they saw a 'Do not disturb' sign on the door and Serina turned to Hoshi demanding "What is going on in there?"

Hoshi looked very nervous and guilty unable to speak so Serina pressed the door release and what she saw inside she would haunt her for the rest of her days.

Inside the cell that was identical to those on her own ship there stood a man in a lieutenant's uniform with his pants down, holding a woman prisoner down on the floor as he penetrated her from behind with care to make it as painful as possible for her. Three marines in the room stood there laughing as she just took it without reaction, showing that this must be a regular event to have desensitized her so much. Serina just stood frozen as did her group behind her, the men in the room hadn't even noticed her presence but she drew her service weapon and shouted out

"BREAK THIS UP THIS INSTANT" quickly drawing their attention and the lieutenant who had been raping the woman prisoner suddenly got to his feet pulling his pants back on saying in a slimy voice that made Serina's blood chill

"Just interrogating the prisoner sir" but Serina was having none of it and demanded

"Name, rank, serial number"

The man said back "Thorne, Alastair. Rank; Lieutenant, serial number 873827"

Serina decided to take this man with them, so she told him a little lie to make him come willingly "Lieutenant to reassure this crew that Admiral Cain is unharmed you will be accompanying to see her in person, the prisoner will also join us so our own people can interrogate her" she now recognised the prisoner as a Cylon model Six, just like Selena. Serina was disgusted at what she had just witnessed and wanted to get this woman as far away from _Pegasus_ as she could to get her some proper care, so she came up with a convincing lie till they were away from the ship.

"Yes sir" Thorne said surprised and making sure to kick the prisoner on the way out Serina gritted her teeth and had two of her own marines take the bond Cylon to the troopship. She turned to Hoshi and asked him in a voice that carried as much warmth as the artic wind

"Where is Lieutenant Thorne's rack?"

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

After doing a quick search and pulling several recordings that the bastard had kept of their previous 'interrogations' they proceeded to store their evidence on the troop ship under guard. She then started the interviews. Whatever decency that the crew had had before it was clearly now gone, most of them she could gather believed that the sun shined out of Cain and were angry at her arrest. Some people like Cain's aide a Lieutenant Stephanie Roberts believed everything they had done was justified even the killing and slaughter of civilians to prolong their war effort. Some of those conscripted civilians however were only glad to give their own accounts of what had happened once out of ear shot of the crew.

When they had finally finished on _Pegasus_, the group boarded their troopship with the Cylon they now knew was called Gina and Lieutenant Thorne. They waited till they had taken off heading for _Galactica_ when Serina had binders placed on Thorne's hands after punching the man out. Gina looked up surprised, showing the first signs of life since they had met her and Serina just told her with a warm smile

"It's over now Gina, we won't hurt you, and you're safe with us"

Gina couldn't believe that statement, they were colonials and all colonials were alike horrible disgusting creatures but deep down inside her for the first time in a long time a nearly forgotten feeling began to cast warmth over her abused soul

Hope

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

After the evidence was stowed safely on _Galactica_ where Seth could take the time to analyse it, Thorne was placed in the brig on charges of assault and violating the conventions of the treatment of prisoners. Thankfully when Selena had begun to help them earlier on, the Assembly had deemed organic Cylons as living beings worthy of protection under the law at Seth's request to gain Selena's confidence. Gina herself was taken to _Galactica's_ infirmary where she was sedated while Doctor Cottle began documenting her wounds as evidence before starting to treat her.

After that she as her group boarded the troopship again and continued their investigations this time on the _Battlestar Artemis_.

This time when they boarded the new Battlestar they were welcomed with open arms, the crew were ecstatic to see more colonials and were only too happy to help them, when Serina learned why they were so willing she added another important point in her report. She met with the commanding officer of the ship a stressed looking seventy years old Major Karl Zanuck. He added his own story to the growing mountain of evidence.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

An hour later now on-board _Telmaya_, Serina made her report on _Pegasus_ and _Artemis_ to Seth and Adama; she kept her voice calm and emotionless

"The _Pegasus_ was able to survive the fall of the Colonies because their computer systems were down for a retrofit so they were able to use their manual overrides to get the ship away with a blind jump. They eventually learned about the colonies and Cain decided with no other sign of survivors to launch a guerrilla campaign against the Cylons. Their first attack was on a supposed Comm relay which turned out to be a Cylon staging area. Despite a Cylon infiltrator, a model six called Gina sabotaging their defences and being outnumbered four to one, Cain ordered them to go in anyway. Her first officer Colonel Belzan objected and she proceeded to shot him in the head. Then she had Fisk order the attack anyway. After that she had Lieutenant Thorne begin torturing and raping the Cylon Gina to try and get Intel but they never managed to get anything from her. Following this they encountered the Scylla fleet but a Lieutenant Donald Sweet warned them and they jumped away for which he was executed. They continued their strikes against the Cylons and any other civilian vessels they found were stripped of useful parts or personnel" Serina took a moment to steady her breathing before continuing

"Then they encountered the _Artemis_ which was hiding inside a nebula cloud with two civilian haulers. When Commander Frank Callahan refused to join Cain's quest and strip the haulers, she had him killed along with his XO and most of his command staff leaving the inexperienced crew leaderless, with no experienced officers and terrified of her. She then had the haulers stripped and replaced Callahan with the retired seventy year old Major Karl Zanuck who she had press ganged from a civilian ship. Zanuck managed to save some of the civilians including his own grandchildren but the man has a heart condition with leaves him vulnerable to high stress levels so commanding a ship is slowly driving him to the grave"

Adama felt a major headache coming on "My gods she's insane. This is worse than we ever thought"

Seth felt the same and slipped him own drink before telling Serina "Okay grab some rack time, you earned it" and she nodded before leaving a paper copy of her report for them to read, leaving the men with a lot of decisions to make

"I'll assign an officer to _Artemis_ to take some of the strain off of Zanuck, till we can find someone capable of running the ship" Adama told his second in command who nodded. With a combined crew of 3500 the two new ships had increased the population of the fleet to 86,265

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

The court martial was convened the two days later in the morning once Seth and Cain had managed to go over all the evidence that his CAG had gathered and prepare their arguments. The court was made in a room on _Galactica_.

The three presiding officers, Admiral Adama, Colonel Colchester and Colonel O'Donnell sat at the centre of the room with the defendant Admiral Cain stood in the dock to their left. To their right Seth sat at the prosecution. As predicted Cain had chosen to defend herself, a small group of civilians were watching the trail and some officers from _Pegasus_ had been allowed to watch

Seeing no reason to wait Admiral Adama started the proceedings

"We are called here today to assess the conduct of Rear Admiral Helena Cain. She stands charged with murder on multiple counts, piracy on multiple counts, treason against the Colonies and violations of the Caprican Convention. Admiral Cain how do you plead?" he asked the woman who looked at them all defiantly before saying

"Not guilty and I do not recognise the authority of this court" and angry mumbling brought out in the audience and Adama said in response

"You may not recognise the authority of this court but you will be judged by it none to less" and then turned to Seth saying "Commodore please begin"

Seth took a moment to clear his throat before saying "Thank you your honour, this is a court of the rules and laws that bind our people as a society that we are all responsible to uphold and ultimately accountable too. It is my intention to see here today that justice is done and that those laws which prevent us from falling into anarchy are indeed upheld" he said closing his opening statement. Adama turned to Cain who just stared back defiantly before Adama started again

"Very well, we move on to the charges of murder, commodore would you please make your case and display your evidence"

Seth nodded and carried forward transcripts copied from Cain's own logs and interviews with crewmembers placing them on the judge's table for them to read before saying "I present the evidence taken from the Admiral's logs and the words of her own crew regarding her actions during the action against the comm relay shortly after the fall. The transcript clearly show that outnumbered over four to one and with the ship's own defences sabotaged the Executive officer of Pegasus Colonel Belzan recommended to the Admiral that they call a retreat rather than commit their full resources to the destruction of a minor outpost. At his suggestion she ignored it and when called on to order all vipers into action Belzan refused the order so the Admiral rather than lose face, took his own side arm and shot him in the head in front of her own crew before then having Colonel Fisk carry out her previous order"

The judges read the transcripts carefully as Seth continued "This is completely unjustified, the procedure for this circumstance would have been to send the Colonel to the Brig. And his objection was completely valid given that in that battle _Pegasus_ lost 816 crewmembers with 121 injured. In material losses 32 vipers were destroyed and 61 damaged with insufficient parts to repair them all in the name of a tactically insignificant victory"

The Judges sat as they listened to Seth before turning to Cain who said "The Colonel was undermining my authority in a situation where withdrawal would have been negative for the ship's crew" Cain said simply and Seth retorted

"We are not questioning whether you were right to continue the attack or not admiral although in terms of the morale of your crew would consider such heavy losses negative enough. We are questioning your action in murdering Colonel Jurgen Belzan, a man who had served as your executive officer for many years simply because he did not do as you told him. A man who was just doing his job and trying to protect the crew" Cain fell silent as she thought for the first time in a while about her old friend, who had introduced her to his wife and daughters who made her an honorary aunt and how horrible it felt knowing that she had killed perhaps the closest thing to a friend that she had. She looked up at the watching audience and saw for just a moment, Jurgen and his family staring at her till she blinked and they were gone

With Cain's silence they moved on to the charges of piracy and murder in regards of the stripped ships

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Meanwhile Helo in his and Sharon's new quarters was showing images from the Cylon fleet to Sharon who saw the strange ship and told him what it was

"It's called the Resurrection Ship, as we get further and further away from the colonies the range of the resurrection network gets more strained so we built these ship's to extend it"

"So if it was destroyed, the Cylons couldn't resurrect?" Helo asked and Sharon nodded but added

"At least until a new ship is brought in range" leaving Helo's mind spinning with possibilities

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

"The accused stands charged with the stripping of civilian vessels and the forced conscription of individuals into the crew of Pegasus as well as the shooting of civilians who would not comply and their families as well as leaving the surviving civilians to perish from either Cylon attack or CO2 build up once the Air scrubbers had been taken" Seth said back at the trial. Cain was still shaken by the earlier point about Jurgen and defended her point

"We needed those supplies to continue our campaign against the Cylons and those recruits have been instrumental in repairing our ship" but Seth continued to tear her argument to pieces

"The war that the Cylons wage on us Admiral is a war of extermination, every day that we stay alive is a victory in its own way. Your strikes have done very little to affect the Cylon infrastructure and those people that you condemned to death on those stripped hulks could have been the beginning of a new colonial civilisation. You could have used your ship to protect them and made a run for deep space, instead you use them to continue a war effort which is ultimately futile" Seth said

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

To distract her from what was going on at her mother's trial; Sheba was going through the reports made on the condition of the two new battlestars

The _Battlestar_ _Pegasus_ was fully operational with an air wing of 7 viper squadrons and 30 raptors and a crew of 1700

The _Battlestar_ _Artemis_ was also fully operational with an air wing of 8 viper squadrons and 29 raptors with a crew of 1800

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

"And for the final point, the execution of Colonel Frank Callahan and his command crew was worse than Colonel Belzan; they were the only experienced officers in the entire crew of the _Artemis_. Without them the crew was left completely disorganised and to compound that you force a retired seventy year old man with a weak heart to take over command of the ship with no experienced officers to assist him" Seth said "In the last two engagements with the Cylons they have suffered terrible losses as a result of inexperienced and terrified crew lacking the direction that the experienced officers could provide" Seth said to Cain back at the trial. He was only glad that his own officers had been able to handle the pressure that they had been under

Cain was trying to defend her position but the more she thought about it, the more missed opportunities she saw in the past. She still had to try and make them understand why she had done it all though

"At the time, I was operating blind with no idea of what to do, unable to see any kind of future were I and my crew weren't dead, it was my decision to at least try and avenge the loss of the billions in the colonies. I was under enormous pressure every moment"

Seth was not in a mood to forgive "WE all were admiral, I and Admiral Adama faced trials and pressure ourselves but we sought to protect the sanctity of life, whereas you sought only to seek revenge"

With the last point delivered Adama stood to talk to the gathered crowd "We will retire to discuss our verdict, till then we will have a three hour recess"

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

In the infirmary of _Galactica_, Gina lay restrained to the bed in fear she would harm herself if freed after she had tried to cut herself with a scapula. She was so unaccustomed to being treated with kindness and mercies that it made her wonder if she had died and moved into the kingdom of god. She flinched as the nurse that she had discovered was called Islay came over to offer her a drink of water. She stared at the nurse who offered her the glass before nodding allowing the woman to come closer to pour the smooth refreshing liquid down her throat. She was parched, on _Pegasus_ they had given her an eggcup of water every three days if she was lucky but here they treated her like one of them, a living being.

Islay set the glass down on the table by her bed and went off to find something to eat for Gina. In the glass Gina saw her reflection

'Where did that beautiful and confident woman go?' she asked herself in despair as her bruises and tussled hair were revealed to her 'Why did they do this me? I thought Helena loved me' she thought to herself and tears started flowing down her cheeks then Islay returned without her noticing till Islay put a comforting hand on her shoulder. Gina was about to flinch away till she saw the warmth in Islay's eyes who told her

"We will help Gina; we have a sister of yours on _Telmaya_ you know" Islay smiled at her and Gina flet just a little better allowing Islay to touch her

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Three hours later, the Judges returned with their verdict, Colonel Colchester read for the three of them as the audience, Seth and Cain who waited

"We fine the defendant Helena Cain guilty on all charges" they said and the reaction was immediate, the audience and Seth relieved that justice was to be achieved. Colchester continued "Due to the large and severe nature of the offenses, we must assign the most severe punishment that this court is able to bestow; we sentence you Helena Cain to death by airlock" and Cain's face flew as the impact of what had just been said hit her

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

The next day was brutal, the _Pegasus_ threatened to fire on the civilian fleet unless the admiral was spared but Helena convinced them to stand down, not wanting her ship to be destroyed by Adama. She was awaiting her execution when she heard the guard saying as he opened the cell

"Prisoner, you have a visitor" Helena looked up expecting to see Jack Fisk or a member of her crew only to see the last person she had been expecting

Sheba Cain, her daughter

Sheba just stood there wearing a colonel's uniform with a _Telmaya_ patch on the shoulder. Mother and daughter just stared at each other for a moment neither daring to speak but finally Helena

"Sheba" and Sheba could only respond with

"Mother"

"I thought you were dead" Helena said

"I have being trying to work up the nerve to see you for days" Sheba admitting to her own doubts but before anything else could be said Helena reached out and pulled Sheba into a fierce hug the Sheba returned

Now openly crying Helena said "I'm so sorry"

Sheba now crying with her just said back "Me too"

Helena finally admitted to her something that she never had to anyone "I was scared, scared of trying to take care of you all by myself, scared that I would ruin you, hurt you like my mother did me, I did it to protect you from me" and Sheba held her mother tighter

"I missed you so much" Sheba admitted herself as both women cried for what might have been

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

The following morning, it was time. Helena Cain in full dress uniform was marched to the airlock by marines. She saw members of her own crew lining the walls as she passed and she kept her cool demeanour till just before the entrance to the launch tube when she saw Sheba standing there with tears in her eyes and Helena gave her as much of a smile as she could muster before with her head held high, she walked into the launch tube and kept staring straight ahead till it was closed. She closed her eyes and willed herself to stay calm, when she opened them again she saw Jurgen Belzan standing in front of her with his family and a little girl that Helena had not seen since she herself was a child, her darling little sister Lucy. The girl who had given her the strength to stand up to their horror of a mother and who had she had entertained with stories that she may up of great heroes and villains. They all smiled at her and Helena smiled back, even as the door opened exposing her to the vacuum that killed her in mere moment as she drifted out into space

Helena smiled

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

After the execution of Cain, Thorne and a number of crew from Pegasus (40 in all) were booted out of the colonial military and confined to the Astral Queen for what they had done to Gina. But when Helo took the Intel he had gained from Sharon to Adama who ordered an immediate attack plan, putting Seth Trakiss in charge of the attack.

Seth took a look at the recon photos taken by the _Blackbird_; the stealth fighter constructed by the crew of Galactica and devised a plan. He went to take the idea to Adama who listened intently

"The key issue is how we stop the resurrection ship from jumping away the first sight the get. So I propose that the stealth star fighters of _Ulysses_ close to point blank range before using their cannon to destroy the FTL drives on the ship. Once they do this" he said demonstrating with the models on the battle map with Adama watching "_Telmaya, Rycon_ and _Pegasus_ jump in and ambush the base ships while _Ulysses_ attacks with her long range nukes we launch all our vipers to the attack"

Adama looked at the plan, it was simple and straight forward and he nodded "You have a go, but are you sure that taking _Pegasus_ is a good idea after what happened?"

Seth nodded "It's essential that crew needs a victory to lift their spirits" Adama nodded remembering the bleak looks on the faces of the crew he had seen since the execution of Cain. He told Trakiss

"I'm promoting all ship CO's to the rank of commander and I'll be assigning Captain Lee Adama to take over as the _Artemis_ XO to take the pressure of Zanuck. We need to get this military into the proper shape"

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Trakiss called the commanders of the attack fleet together and told Colonel Fisk

"Once the Stealth fighters have taken out the FTL on the resurrection ship I want you to blow it away before turning your ship's fire power on this base ship here" he indicated the ship in question on the battle map and Fisk asked

"Can I ask why _Pegasus_ is destroying this thing; a Raptor with a few missiles could do it" thinking they were being treated like rooks but Trakiss told him

"No Fisk, if Pegasus does this you render all Cylons mortal and killable. For the first time we have the opportunity to actually kill some of the bastards, and you get to make it possible" he told Fisk and the older man saw the importance of the job before nodding

"Yes sir"

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

_Ulysses_ left first, using its stealth technology to get as close as they could to the target without being detected and launched her stealth fighters. The pilots in complete radio silence sped as fast as they dared towards their target. The sight of the two base ships was intimidating but the sight of the target was weird. It looked like a flying cathedral packed with life sized dolls. They shook off the weird feeling and the moment the FTL drive was in range the let loose with their cannons. The high powered rounds torn right into the fragile ship and the FTL was knocked off line. The fighters immediately pulled back while Ulysses began firing its long-range missiles and the three Battlestars jumped in.

On the Pegasus CIC Fisk addressed his crew "Once we blow away that ship, all Cylons we kill will stay death so we kill them all" and a rousing cheer rose amongst the crew as the main battery of _Pegasus_ with just one volley blew the stricken resurrection ship away and the three capital ships began pounding the Cylon ships while their fighters attacked the swarms of Raiders relishing the feeling of finally killing Cylons properly. The _Ulysses_ slammed a nuke into one base ship before _Pegasus_ finished the job blowing the ship to bits. Rycon and Telmaya attacked the other one together, slamming missiles and shells into it reducing it into a flaming hulk before finally its hull collapsed in a massive fireball

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

_I was asked to include a list of Military ships so here it is_

_Military Ship Roll Call = _

_Battlestar Galactica – Columbia class. Commander – Fleet Admiral William Adama, XO – Colonel Saul Tigh. Flagship of the fleet_

_Battlestar Telmaya – Mercury class. Commander – Commodore Seth Trakiss, XO – Colonel Sheba Cain _

_Battlestar Pegasus – Mercury class. Commander – Commander Jack Fisk, XO – Major Barry Gardener _

_Battlestar Artemis – Mercury class. Commander – Commander Karl Zanuck, XO – Captain Lee Adama_

_Battlestar Colossus – Columbia class. Commander – Commander Miranda Colchester, XO – Major Samantha Freeman _

_Battlestar Rycon – Valkyrie class. Commander – Commander Beatrix Ishii, XO – Major Quintus _

_Battlestar Vulcan – Valkyrie class. Commander – Commander Russell O'Donnell, XO – Lieutenant Colonel Gary Morris _

_Dreadnaught Achilles – Mars class. Commander- Commander Paula Yates, XO – Major Severin Marino _

_Long range Missile cruiser Ulysses – Ulysses class. Commander Abby Brant, XO – Major Daryl Yantos _


End file.
